DELIMITATION IN INDIA: A CONSTITUTIONAL DILEMMA BETWEEN ELECTORAL REPRESENTATION AND FEDERAL BALANCE
Harsh Raj, B.A LL. B, 8th Semester, Student at Gitarattan International Business School Affliated to Guru Gobind Indraprastha University (India)
Through scientific analytics and compositional intelligibility, besides the discourse on delimitation in India, this paper broadly lays focus on balancing the choice of equitable electoral representation with the basic tenets of federalism. The delimitation process, while acting as a mechanism for population-based representation, may inadvertently penalise states for the population control measures they have effectively implemented, thereby disrupting federal equity. The study discusses the constitutional and legal frameworks that go along with delimitation, such as, Articles 82 and 170 from the Constitution as well as 42nd and 84th Constitutional Amendments. The research deployed a doctrinal methodology based on judicial pronouncements, constituent assembly debates, and various Delimitation Commissions’ reports; for the sake of the undertaken analysis to be comprehensive, unattributed topics were included as well such as legal or political determinants relevant to freeze of periodic based on population indexing. The paper’s unique outcome was to introduce a “Weighted Delimitation Index” that is not only a concept but also a model which comprises population, development indicators, and demographic responsibility for fairness in representation. The paper argues that the existing delimitation practice carries a danger of representational asymmetry that to a greater extent could be through the political influence of states with more population growth. It requires delimitation to be done in a balanced, phased, and equity-way giving attention to if the popular will and the federal integrity are neither challenged nor compromised. This research is innovative by the interaction between constitutional interpretation and data-driven equity models, thus, suggesting new possible development in the Indian context.
| 📄 Type | 🔍 Information |
|---|---|
| Research Paper | LawFoyer International Journal of Doctrinal Legal Research (LIJDLR), Volume 4, Issue 1, Page 3119–3147. |
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| This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . | © Authors, 2026. All rights reserved. |