Article 82 and 170 of the Constitution of India provide for readjustment and the division of each state into territorial constituencies on the basis of the 2001 census by authority and in such manner as Parliament, may by law determine.
Further, articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution of India provide for re-fixing the numbers of seats reserved for the scheduled caste and Scheduled Tribes in the house of people and legislative assemblies of the states on the basis of the 2001 census.
The present delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies is based on the 1971 census. The uneven growth of population in different constituencies in different parts of the country as well as within the same state has also continuous migration of people /electorate from one place to other especially from rural areas to urban areas have resulted in strikingly different sizes of electoral constituencies even within the same state.
Therefore, the delimitation Act 2002 was enacted to setup a delimitation Commission for the purpose of affecting delimitation on the basis of the 2001 census so as to correct the aforesaid distortion in the sizes of electoral constituencies the proposed delimitation Commission would also reflect the number of seats for the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribes on the basis of the 2001 census without affecting total number of seats based on the 1971 census.
