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Polity & Governance GS 2 In the news 13 times

Article 82

Readjustment After Each Census

Article 82 currently mandates that upon the completion of each census, Parliament shall by law provide for readjustment of the allocation of seats to each state in the House of the People and the division of each state into territorial constituencies. This creates a near-automatic obligation to conduct delimitation after every decennial census.

Key details
  • Article 82 currently reads: "Upon the completion of each census, the allocation of seats in the House of the People to the States and the division of each State into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted by such authority and in such manner as Parliament may by law determine"
  • The 131st Amendment weakens this by replacing "upon the completion of each census" with a more permissive formulation, effectively removing the mandatory census-trigger
  • The 84th Amendment Act, 2001 had already created an exception to Article 82 — freezing inter-state seat allocation (not internal boundary adjustments) until after the first Census following 2026
  • The 2026 bill removes even this frozen constraint, allowing immediate delimitation
In the news

Tracked since April 08, 2026 · last seen August 10, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes

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