Number of Assembly seats to remain frozen till 2026

On the second last day of the Budget session, the Rajya Sabha approved the 96th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2003, providing for delimitat...

On the second last day of the Budget session, the Rajya Sabha approved the 96th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2003, providing for delimitation or territorial re-organisation of constituencies on the basis of the 2001 Census, including the ones reserved for the SC/STs, but keeping a freeze on the number of constitutencies till 2026. Moving the Constitutional Amendement Bill, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley said the Delimitation Commission will carry on with its work on the basis of the provisional figures of Census 2001, while the final figures were expected anytime between September or October 2003. The Bill was approved by the Lok Sabha on May 6.

Jaitley clarified that as per the Bill, there would be a freeze on the number of constituencies till 2026. He said the purpose of the freeze was to ensure that the population of the country would stabilise by then.

Though he admitted that some states are already experiencing population stablisation, it was decided not to give them perferentail treatment in order to maintain uniformity across the country. The Delimitation Commission will re-reorganise the territorial limits of constituencies and also refix the number of seats reserved for SC/STS on the basis of the 1991 Census. In his reply, Jaitley agreed with the view expressed by some members that the candidates should know the size of their constituencies reasonably before the polls.

Story continues below this ad

‘‘The objective was to keep the constituencies’ size broadly equal to the margin of 10 per cent fixed by the Commission,’’ he said, adding that the amendment will enable the Commission to bring about a balance between number of voters and constituency size. On the issue of rotation of reserved constituencies, there was consensus in the all-party meeting as the constituencies were reserved on the basis of SC/ST population.

‘‘If the rotation (of reserved seat) took place it might happen that the reserved constituencies did not have SC/ST population,’’ Jaitley said.