NCERT Solutions for Class 9th Social Science Chapter 7 Delimitation Commission — DON'T MISS OUT

Book page 166 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
Article 82 of the Constitution of India mandates the establishment of a Delimitation Commission. India has had four Delimitation Commissions—in 1952, 1963, 1973, and 2002. Can you find out the reason for the long interval between 1973 and 2002 with the help of your teacher?
Answer

First, count the gaps, because the pattern is the clue.

1952 → 1963 : gap of 11 years
1963 → 1973 : gap of 10 years
1973 → 2002 : gap of 29 years

So the first three Commissions came roughly once a decade, after each Census, and then the sequence stopped for nearly three decades. That break was deliberate, and made by a constitutional amendment — not an oversight.

The reason. Delimitation redistributes seats according to population. States whose population grew fastest would gain seats; States that had brought their population growth down would lose seats. That would have meant that a State was penalised in Parliament for succeeding at family planning. To remove that penalty, the allocation of Lok Sabha seats among the States was frozen on the basis of the 1971 Census, so no fresh Commission was needed. The freeze was later extended, and the 2002 Commission worked within it: it redrew the boundaries of constituencies inside each State using the 2001 Census figures, but did not change the number of seats allotted to each State.

Why it matters for the chapter's argument: the chapter says delimitation exists so that the ratio of seats to population is as nearly equal as possible — one MP for five lakh people and another for twenty-five lakh defeats equal representation. The freeze shows that this principle can pull against another one, namely not disadvantaging States for a national policy they carried out. Balancing two good principles against each other is a normal, and difficult, part of constitutional design.
Check it yourself: read Article 82 of the Constitution, and ask your teacher to show you which amendments extended the freeze and until when. Note the article and amendment numbers in your notebook rather than relying on a summary.
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