Under Article 82 of the Constitution, Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census which establishes a Delimitation Commission. Under Article 170, States also get divided into territorial constituencies as per Delimitation Act after every Census.
Once the Act is in force, the Union government sets up a Delimitation Commission.
Its major function is to determine the number and boundaries of constituencies to make the population of all constituencies nearly equal.
The first delimitation exercise was carried out by the President, with the help of the Election Commission, in 1950-51. The Delimitation Commission Act was enacted in 1952.
Delimitation Commissions have been set up four times — 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under the Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002.
The government had suspended delimitation in 1976 until after the 2001 census hence there was no delimitation after the 1981 and 1991 Censuses.
Although the freeze on the number of seats in Lok Sabha and Assemblies should have been lifted after the 2001 Census, another amendment postponed this until 2026.
In 2008, Delimitation was done based on the 2001 census, but the total number of seats in the Assemblies and Parliament decided as per the 1971 Census was not changed.
The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.
Members of the commission include: Retired Supreme Court judge, Chief Election Commissioner and Respective State Election Commissioners.
The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court.
