Delimitation will be over in time: Election Commission

• On the orders of the Supreme Court (SC), to change the status of some Lok Sabha/Assembly constituencies from the general category to reserved seats for SCs/STs and vice versa, the Delimitation Commission has started working on it in Uttar Pradesh.
• Readjustment of reserved constituencies would be based on the notification issued by the Registrar- General of Census, with 2001 population figures as the base.
• Though this was an all-India exercise, there would’nt be large changes, since de-reservation of constituencies and vice versa was being carried out only in places where there were significant changes in the SC/ST population or inclusion of new castes under the SC/ST.
• However, as already decided by the Delimitation Commission, there would be no changes in the geographical limits/boundaries of the Lok Sabha/Assembly constituencies till 2026.
• Recently (a few months ago), the Law Ministry had issued a notification empowering the EC to do the duties of the Delimitation Commission so as to determine the change in composition of any constituency where the government had included in or excluded any caste from the SC/ST category between 2001 and 2012. (Earlier, the EC did not have the powers to alter the reserved seats and it could be done only through a nationwide delimitation exercise.)
• With this, the EC can carry out a limited corrective exercise immediately rather than waiting for decades for the outcome of the next delimitation exercise to decide whether a particular constituency should be reserved for SC/ST candidates or thrown open for the general category.

More about Delimitation Commission:

• Delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power
• body. Such a body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission.
• In India, such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted 4 times in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.
• Under Article 82 of the Constitution, the Parliament by law enacts a Delimitation Act after every census. After coming into force commencement of the Act, the Central Government constitutes a Delimitation Commission. This Delimitation Commission demarcates the boundaries of the Parliamentary Constituencies as per provisions of the Delimitation Act.
• The present delimitation of constituencies has been done on the basis of 2001 census figures under the provisions of Delimitation Act, 2002. Notwithstanding the above, the Constitution of India was specifically amended in 2002 not to have delimitation of constituencies till the first census after 2026. Thus, the present Constituencies carved out on the basis of 2001 census shall continue to be in operation till the first census after 2026.