Unfair That States Which Failed In Population Control Got More Parliamentary Seats, Says Madras HC

The construction of the new Central Vista is progressing in full swing and among the several building that is coming up is the new parliament.

The new building will have a seating capacity for 888 members in the Lok Sabha Chamber, with an option to increase it to 1,224 members during joint sessions. Similarly, the Rajya Sabha Chamber would have a seating capacity for 384 members.

BCCL

Currently, there are 543 members in the Lok Sabha and 245 in the Rajya Sabha.

Though there have not been any official moves yet, the government has hinted at increasing the number of MPs by 2024.

This will be done based on the current population of the country, and several states have already said that it is putting them in a position of disadvantage.

AFP

States in south India have long alleged that they have been punished for implementing population control measures, while states that failed are getting a larger share of government policies.

Southern states fear that a population-based increase in Parliament seats will further add to their problems.

Recently the Madras High Court said that it was "unfair and unreasonable" the reduction in the parliamentary seats assigned to Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha after the State had managed to reduce its population in 1967 owing to the implementation of successful birth control measures.

PTI

The court said that such a practice amounted to punishing States which implemented family planning measures successfully.

¡°Population control cannot be a factor to decide the number of political representatives of the states in the Parliament. Those states which failed to implement the birth control programmes were benefited with more political representatives in the Parliament,¡± the Bench said.

It further said that the number of Lok Sabha seats should be frozen at the existing numbers, or it should be enhanced to the original level ¨C 41 seats in Tamil Nadu as it was in 1962. From 41, TN¡¯s number came down to 39 in 1967.

BCCL

The Bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice B Pugalendhi also asked the Centre why it should not be directed to pay a notional compensation of Rs 5,600 crore to Tamil Nadu for having reduced its MP seats from 41 to 39 since the 1967 general election.

The court's observations came in a plea seeking the de-reservation of the Tenkasi constituency that has remained a reserved constituency for nearly 50 years.

It said that no such direction could be issued since the law does not permit the reservation of parliamentary constituencies on rotation.