Why is there no readjustment of Lok Sabha seats after every Census?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 8, 2019
The  electorate size per Lok Sabha constituency is not uniform across the country. Why is there no readjustment of Lok Sabha seats if the size of the electorate is varied?
The Lok Sabha general elections isthe time when one looks at all the numbers related to voters, constituenciesand what not. One of the issues that is not often discussed is the size of ourLok Sabha constituencies (in terms of number of voters) and how they vary fromstate to state. There are also issues like reorganization of theseconstituencies and delimitation. Here is a deep dive.
The average electorate size per seat
was 15.36 lakh in 2014 LS Elections
At an All-India level, the average electorate size per Lok Sabha constituency (seat) was 15.36 lakh during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But there are variations from state to state. Delhi had the highest average electorate size with 18.16 lakh voters per constituency followed by Uttar Pradesh with 17.35 lakh per constituency. In 11 of the 36 States/UTs, the average electorate size per constituency was more than the national average while it was less than the national average in the rest of them.
The lowest was in Lakshadweep wherethe number of registered voters was around 50000. The most number of voters ina constituency was in Malkajgiri from Telangana where the number of registeredvoters was 31.8 lakh in 2014. Out of the 543 constituencies, the averageelectorate size was more than the national average of 15.36 lakh in 293constituencies.
Even the number of assembly constituencies
is not uniform
Each Lok Sabha seat consists of a specificnumber of Assembly segments in States/UTs that have a legislative assembly. Thenumber of such segments vary from state to state. In most big states, thisnumber varies from 5 to 10 assembly segments per Lok Sabha seat. This number isvery high in the North-Eastern and smaller states because of the lowerpopulation. The highest number of assembly segments for a single Lok Sabha seatis in Nagaland where all the 60 assembly segments in the state are part of thesame Lok Sabha seat.
Is the number of Lok Sabha seats in
a State fixed forever?
Every now & then, the government sets up a ‘Delimitation Commission’. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Delimitation literallymeans the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of constituencies inthe country or in states that have legislative bodies like the Lok Sabha or anassembly. Such a commission is expected to take note of changes in populationin various areas and adjust the number of constituencies accordingly.
Till date, such commissions have been constituted four times. The last such commission was constituted in 2002 which redrew the boundaries of various Lok Sabha constituencies. But the 2002 exercise was limited to  redrawing boundaries of constituencies within a state. It did not venture into readjusting the number of Lok Sabha seats  allocated to each state.
Why is there no readjustment of Lok Sabha seats after
every Census?
As per Article 82 of the Constitution of
India, there has tobe readjustment of seats after each census (every 10 years) and such adjustmentshould be based on the population.
However, this was not done becauseof the 42nd amendment
to the Constitution, more popularly known as the ‘Mini-Constitution’ that made widespreadchanges to the constitution during emergency days in 1976. ‘Population controland family planning’ was included in the concurrent list with this amendment.The government of the day was keen on promoting family planning and to controlpopulation growth.
Hence provisions were included inarticles 55, 82, 170 and 330 of the constitution not to make any changes to thenumber of Lok Sabha seats, Assembly seats etc. until the figures from the firstCensus after the year 2000 have been published. This was done as a measure toboost family planning norms. In other words, any readjustment to the totalnumber of seats had to take place only after the year 2000 when the 2001 Censusfigures would be published.
The NDA government extended this to
2026
The NDA government in the year 2001felt the need to amend the provisions included through the 42nd amendment sincethe 2001 Census figures were about to be published. The statement of objects tothe 84th amendment
to the constitution in 2001 mentions that there have been consistent demands, both forand against undertaking the exercise of readjustment. It further says thatconsidering the progress of family planning programs in different parts of thecountry, and as per the National Population Policy strategy, it was decided toextend the freeze on readjustment up to the year 2026. The government saw it asa motivational measure to encourage State Governments to pursue the agenda forpopulation stabilization. Thus the embargo on any readjustment to the totalnumber of seats was extended to 2026, meaning that any such readjustment canonly be done after the 2031 Census.
While readjustment or changing the number of seats is to be done onlyafter 2026, the 84th amendment allowed delimitation (process of fixing limitsor boundaries of territorial constituencies) or changing the reservation statusof the constituencies after the 2001 Census. This was to be done withoutaltering the total number of seats in a state. The Delimitation Act of 2002 served this purpose.
Is population growth uneven?
One of the prime reasons for freezing the readjustment of LokSabha/Assembly seats was to ensure uniform population growth in various states.If readjustment had to be done after each Census, states that have controlledpopulation growth would have lost out on the number of Lok Sabha seats &also on the value of its votes in the Presidential election while the ones thatdid not control stand to benefit.
Even till 2001, most states had a decadal
population growth rate between 20% & 30%. For the first time, between 2001 &2011, the decadal growth rate for most states had fallen to between 10% &20%. The number states growing over 30% had come down from 11 between 1981-91to 3 between 2001-11.
While northern states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh& Uttar Pradesh had a decadal growth rate over 20% in the 2001-11 period,southern states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka & TamilNadu grew at less than 16% in the 2001-11 period. Kerala in fact had the lowestgrowth rate of 4.9% in the 2001-11 period, which is 1/5th of Bihar’s growthrate. If the readjustment was done after every Census, the southern stateswould have lost out on the total Lok Sabha seats for doing better on populationcontrol while the northern states would have benefitted for not controllingpopulation.
Will the readjustment take place
after 2031?
While freezing the readjustment till2026 made sense because of such uneven growth rates, it remains to be seen howthe problem will be solved even after 2026, since the growth rates may not evenout in the near future. It will also be interesting to see how the states thatcontrolled population will be rewarded.