Delimitation — a case of to be or not to be

A special session of Parliament to consider the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 — and also the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, and the Delimitation Bill, 2026 — for readjustment of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats across the country and implementation of reservation of seats for women in Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies (linking it to proposed fresh delimitation for which there was a separate Delimitation Bill) ended in a spectacular way. The proposed delimitation was to reallocate the number of Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assembly seats among States (and Union Territories with legislatures), and determine the territorial boundaries of each constituency, based on data from the 2011 Census. The total number of Lok Sabha seats was proposed to be increased to 850. The special session was convened at a time when electioneering for the ongoing Legislative Assembly elections is at its peak in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, which did not go down well at all with several Opposition parties.

Articles 82 and 170 (3) of the Constitution require a readjustment of the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in each State and the extent/boundary of every constituency, after each Census. The first delimitation exercise in independent India was carried out in 1950-51 by the Election Commission of India, in consultation with Parliamentary Advisory Committees established for various States. As the delimitation exercise could not await the completion of the 1951 Census, given the urgency of conducting elections at the earliest, the first delimitation was based on estimated population figures, as of March 1, 1950, as provided by the Census Commissioner.