Commissions In India

Delimitation Commission Of India

The provisions of Delimitation Commission Act has been enforced through Central Governments with the establishment of Delimitation Commission of India or the Boundary commission for on several occasions. The Central Government formed a committee to set it for such huge task. The government took keen interest in its establishment by keeping in view electoral needs and to systematize the democratic setup for electoral system of country for both assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

With the establishment of the Delimitation Commission of India Central Government assigned its core team major and minor roles especially to fulfill the important task of the Commission for effective redrawing of boundaries of various Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies under the provisions of the censuses held. The basis for such redrawing was mainly keeping in view current census reports to smoothen the democratic system of the country on state and central levels.

Exercise Limitation & Delimitations

Delimitation Commission of India has taken several initiatives and has suggested their enforcement since establishment except advising no change in representation from the different states of the country. It has not happened yet in the Commission exercises to do yet. The Commission has taken initiatives for delimitation through keeping in consideration the number of SC and ST seats in various states as per the census reports submitted to the governments.

Delimitation Commission of India remains a powerful autonomous body in India for suggesting implementation to the Central Government. The Commission has been given the power to evaluate, explore and suggest recommendations on the concrete grounds and they shouldn’t be challenged in a court of law for the roles it plays. Their guidelines and recommendations are the orders which government put before the Lok Sabha and respective state legislative assemblies for their discussion. As is it clearly indicated there is no modification option and are not practiced as well.

Previous Delimitation Commissions

Central Government established many Delimitation Commissions ever since it opted the democratic system of governance since country’s independence. By now four Delimitation Commissions have been established by the Central Government which include the Commissions in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002. These Commissions were established under the Delimitation Commission Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002 respectively.

Commission Suspension

The period from 1976 and until after the censuses of 2001 remained suspended one as far as the implementation of Delimitation Commission of India was concerned. The Central Government took this step through keeping in view the family planning programs in the various states of the country by keeping in view that they shouldn’t get effected. It was also assumed that the political representation in Lok Sabha might go biased henceforth such strong decision was taken.

Ironically wide discrepancies arose in the constituency sizes thereafter. As reported ever the largest constituency had more than three million electors while the least elector or the smallest one with less than 50,000 caused a big gap.

Delimitation Commission of India 2002

The latest Delimitation Commission of India was established on July 12, 2002 post 2001 census report submission to the government. This Commission came into force with the appointment of Justice Kuldip Singh, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India being designated as Commission’s Chairperson to lead this team.

Delimitation Commission of India 2002 has submitted its recommendations to the Central Government of India with several important guidelines and suggestions for implementation. Central Government received a notice from the Supreme Court on December 2007 to explain why recommendations were not implemented till then.

Central Government took the initiative and decided to setup a Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on January 04, 2008 to take decision for implementation of order from the current Delimitation commission. The then president Pratibha Patil approved recommendations of delimitation commission on February 19, 2008 for its implementation. It assured that there would be revised and new delimitation in the future elections to be held in state assemblies and for Lok Sabha election post its implementation.

The newly formed constituencies in accordance to the recommendations suggested by Delimitation Commission of India 2002 would be in the limelight in the elections to be held thereafter, suggested the Commission.

First State to Implement Delimitation Commission of India 2002

Once the Central Government implemented the recommendations of Delimitation Commission of India 2002 the first state which applied it was the southern state of Karnataka where elections were to be conducted in 2008. Its assembly boundaries were redrawn post the suggestions and orders of the 2002 delimitation commission and was implemented thereafter as part of the order implementation.