Delimitation

Delimitation Commission is a statutory body for determining territorial boundaries of constituencies for Parliament & State Legislatures.

History:
- 42nd CAA 1976: froze till 2000 at 1971 level
- 84th CAA 2001: froze till 2026 and allowed readjustment based on 1991 census
- 87th CAA 2003: delimitation based on 2001 census w/o altering seat allocation
high powered body: Delimitation Commission
- constituted: 1952, 1963, 1973, 2002
Art 82/170
in such authority and manner as the parliament may, by law, determine
Art 330/332: refixing seats for SC/ST in LS & SLA
329(a): report of DC can’t be challenged
- no modification permissible by House of People & SLA
- however: SC: constitutional courts have power to review orders of delimitation commission if an order is arbitrary & irreconciliable constitutional values (Kishor Chandra Chhanganlal Rathod vs UoI 2024)
- Meghraj Kothari vs Delimitation Commission & others 1996: Judicial interference restricted only to avoid unnecessary delay in election process; not an absolute bar on constitutional courts powers to review orders of delimitation commission

Constitutional provisions

constitutional mandate for fair representation of demographic realities
political equality - one person one vote
preventing gerrymandering
federalism
historical adjustment for balanced representation relative to population distribution

federal imbalance: if based only on population, benefits high growth states and punishes states that have controlled population
reserved constituencies do not accurately reflect demographic realities of SC/ST communities
lack of public participation in delimitation
delays in conducting census and thus, delimitation