Short Note: Parliament House Annex Inaugurated

The construction work of the Parliament House annexe began in May 2011 and was completed in December 2016. It was inauguared on August 2, 2017. The recently built structure has an area of around 39,495 square meters and will house the Parliamentary committees. The foundation was laid by the Vice President M Hamid Ansari and the erstwhile Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

As the Parliament House Annexe has been inaugurated now, the parliament is getting ready for more seats. What are the implications of the freeze on parliamentary seats and seat allocations to States being lifted in 2026? Which articles and amendments of the Constitution are to do with these?

After each census, a decision is made on whether there is a need of any update in the total number of seats and their state wise distribution. As per the Constitution 91st Amendment, the 25-year-old freeze on such revision was extended until the year 2026.

If and when such a freeze is lifted from the laws there would be a change in the overall distribution of seats across many states. States which have had implemented birth control policies and have reduced population, would lose out on some seats, while the states with booming population will get additional number of representatives in the parliament. Also with the ever changing population densities in all the districts, there is a proposal to even redraw the boundaries of many districts to get a better and more relevant representation of the population in the area.

Article 82 of the Constitution will be needed to be modified in order to constitute a Delimitation Commission. This Delimitation commission will be responsible for demarcating boundaries of various parliamentary constituencies as per the provision of the Delimitation act.