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Readjustment of Lok Sabha Seats After Census: Fair Representation in the Indian Parliament
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- After every census, a readjustment is to be made in
- Allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to the states
- Division of each state into territorial constituencies.
- Parliament is empowered to determine the authority and the manner in which it is to be made.
- Accordingly, the Parliament has enacted the Delimitation Commission Acts in 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002 for this purpose. (four times till date)
- The 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act , 1976 froze the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to the states and the division of each state into territorial constituencies till the year 2000 at the 1971 level.
- Objective for freezing was to encourage population limiting measures.
- The 84th CAA 2001 banned readjustment of seats that was extended for another 25 years (up to year 2026).
- Also now the readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituencies to be done on the basis of 1991 census.
- The 87th Constitution Amendment Act, 2003 Provided for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of 2001 census and not 1991 census.
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Reservation of Seats for SC and ST in the Lok Sabha
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- The Constitution has abandoned the system of communal representation.
- It provides for the reservation of seats for SC and ST in the Lok Sabha on the basis of population ratios.
- Originally, this reservation was to operate for ten years (up to 1960), but it has been extended continuously since then by 10 years each time.
- Now, under the 104th Amendment Act of 2019, this reservation is to last until 2030.
- Though seats are reserved for SCs and STs, they are elected by all the voters in a constituency, without any separate electorate.
- However, members of SCs and STs are also not debarred from contesting a general (non-reserved) seat.
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104th Constitutional Amendment Act 2019 (126th CA Bill)
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- Objectives of the amendments are two fold –
- To extend reservation for SC and ST(Art. 330 and 332) to Lok Sabha and legislative bodies.
- Discontinuing the provision of nominating Anglo Indians(Art. 331) to Lok Sabha and legislative bodies.
- The act has provisions for amending Art. 334 and extending reservation only for SC and ST to Lok Sabha and legislative bodies till 25th January 2030 (which was expiring in 2020).
- Article 334 originally provided that reservation of seats and special representation would cease 10 years after the commencement of the Constitution.
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Challenges of Implementing Proportional Representation in the Indian Parliament
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- Difficulty for the voters to understand the complicated system due to the low literacy scale in the country.
- The Proportional Representation System is highly expensive.
- Unsuitability to the parliamentary government due to the tendency of the system to multiply political parties leading to instability in government.
- It does not give any scope for organising by-elections.
- The Proportional Representation System dilutes and eliminates intimate contacts between voters and representatives.
- It promotes minority thinking and group interests.
- It increases the significance of the party system and decreases the importance of voters.
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Advantages of First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) System in the Indian Parliament
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- Simplicity: The entire election system is extremely simple to understand even for common voters who may have no specialised knowledge about politics and elections.
- Clear Choice: There is also a clear choice presented to the voters at the time of elections. Voters have to simply endorse a candidate or a party while voting.
- More Freedom to Voters to Choose: The FPTP system offers voters a choice not simply between parties but specific candidates.
- Ensures Accountability: In constituency based systems like the FPTP, the voters know who their own representative is and can hold him or her accountable.
- Smooth and Efficient: FPTP system makes it possible for parliamentary governments to function smoothly and effectively by facilitating the formation of a stable government by giving the largest party or coalition some extra bonus seats, more than their share of votes would allow.
- Unity and Common Cause: FTPT system encourages voters from different social groups to come together to win an election in a locality. In a diverse country like India, a PR system would encourage each community to form its own nation-wide party.
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Proportional Representation in the Indian Parliament: Variants and Applications
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- In this system a party gets the same proportion of seats as its proportion of votes.
- Israel and the Netherlands follow a proportional representation system.
- In India, we have adopted PR with Single Transferable Vote system on a limited scale for indirect elections.
- The Constitution prescribes PR system for the election of:-
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- President
- Vice – President,
- Election to the Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council
- The system of proportional representation has many variants, out of which two systems are the most popular viz. List system and System of single transferable vote.
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Analyzing the Impact of Proportional Representation System
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- Proportional System and Stability: Because parties are granted seats in accordance with their vote share, numerous parties get seats in the legislature in the proportional representation system, without any party gaining a majority. This detracts from the stability of the system. Coalition government becomes inevitable.
- Proportional System and Representativeness: PR tries to ensure that the election results are as proportional as possible, by curbing the inconsistency between the share of seats and votes.
- It ensures that smaller parties get representation in the legislature.
- It also encourages new parties to emerge and more women and minorities to contest for political power.
- This system of representation ensures honesty in the election process both from the side of the candidate, who can choose their ideological commitments freely, and from that of the voter, who can vote freely.
- Voter-Candidate Connect: One potential drawback of this system is that the relationship between a voter and the candidate may dilute, for the candidate may now be seen as representing the party and not the constituency.
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First Past the Post System in the Indian Parliamentary Context
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- In this system whoever has more votes than all other candidates, is declared elected.
- The winning candidate need not secure a majority of the votes.
- In the electoral race, the candidate who is ahead of others, who crosses the winning post first of all, is the winner.
- This method is also called the “Plurality System”.
- This is the method of election prescribed by the Constitution.
- The votes that go to all the losing candidates go “waste”, for those candidates or parties get no seat from those votes.
- E.g. – Suppose a party gets only 25 per cent of the votes in every constituency, but everyone else gets even less votes. In that case, the party could win all the seats with only 25 per cent votes or even less.
- The issue with FPTP is that certain groups of people will never get a share in the power structure.
- During the drafting of the Constitution, various systems of proportional representation were considered, but the FPTP system was eventually adopted to avoid fragmented legislatures and to facilitate the formation of stable governments.
- All key representatives except President, Vice President, Members of Rajya Sabha and Members of state legislative council are elected via FPTP system.
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