News:The Central Government has begun the process of delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
Facts:
About Delimitation:
- Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in population.
- The main objective of delimitation is to provide equal representation to equal segments of a population.
Process of Delimitation:
- Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.
- Once the Act is in force,the Union government sets up a Delimitation Commission.
- The Delimitation commission was constituted in 1952, 1963, 1973 under their respective acts.
- In 1976, the 42nd Constitutional Amendment was used to stop the delimitation process until 2001.
- In 2002, based on the 2001 Census delimitation commission was setup to readjust the boundaries of existing Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and reworking the number of reserved seats.
- Further,In 2002,the 84th Constitutional Amendment was used to freeze the delimitation process till at least 2026.
About Delimitation commission:
- The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.
- The commission is made up of a retired Supreme Court judge, the Chief Election Commissioner and the respective State Election Commissioners.
- The commission is mandated to a) determine the number and boundaries of constituencies to make the population of all constituencies nearly equal and b) identify seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, wherever their population is relatively large.
- The constitution mandates that the orders of commission are final and cannot be questioned before any court as it would hold up an election indefinitely.
