Delimitation Commission holds meeting to review the progress of directions

The Delimitation exercise has been done four times in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002

• The Delimitation Commission held a meeting to review the progress of directions that were
  provided during its meet in April – 2020
• Earlier there was slight delay in organizing the first meeting due to ongoing lockdown because of
  Covid 19 pandemic
• Nomination of Associate Members as required under Delimitation Act, 2002 has been received
  from the Lok Sabha

Key findings of the meeting

• The Delimitation process is followed to provide equal representation to equal segments of a
  population
• With the help of delimitation, fair division of geographical areas can take place which in turn
  ensure that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an election
• Apart from above, delimitation ensures the compliance of the principle of “One Vote One Value”
• In the present meeting, the details of State Election Commissioner were received from the states
  of Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam
• The Census data has also been received from the Registrar General
• The number of Lok Sabha seats allotted to a state is based on the ratio between that number
  and population of the state
• However, under this provision, the states that took less interest in population control ended up
  having greater representations
• In 1976, during emergency period, the delimitation was suspended till 2001. Thus, recently no
  delimitation was carried in recent past
• Earlier there was slight delay in organizing the first meeting due to ongoing lockdown because of
  Covid 19 pandemic
• Now, Nomination of Associate Members as required under Delimitation Act, 2002 has been
  received from the Lok Sabha
• Also nomination of Associate Members from the Legislative Assembly of Assam and Manipur
  has been received. Requisite Census data has been received from Registrar General and Census
  Commissioner of India

What is “Delimitation Commission”?

• The Delimitation Act is brought about by the Parliament after every census under Article 82
• Delimitation refers to the act or process by which limits or boundaries of territorial
  constituencies are fixed in a country to represent changes in the population
• The responsibility of the appointment of Delimitation Commission lies with the President of India
• The commission is made of Supreme Court Judge, Chief Election Commissioner and also state
  election commissioners of respective states
• The Delimitation exercise has been done four times. They were implemented in 1952, 1963,
  1973 and 2002
• The Last delimitation exercise was begun in 2002 and ended in 2008 based on 2001 census
• The representation from each State is not changed during this exercise
• However, the number of SC and ST seats in a state is changed in accordance with the census

Execution of delimitation

• Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census
• 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

Pic courtesy : currentaffairs.gktoday.in