Second Amendment of the Constitution of India

The Second Amendment of the Constitution of India, officially known as The Constitution (Second Amendment) Act, 1952, removed the upper population limit for a parliamentary constituency by amending Article 81 of the Constitution. Article 81 had stipulated that the number of members to be allotted to each parliamentary constituency should be determined so as to ensure that there would be not less than one member for every 750,000 of the population and not more than one member for every 500,000 of the population. The present delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies is based on the estimates of population which have been given legal validity by an order of the President under article 387 of the Constitution. Article 81 of the Constitution, however, requires that upon the completion of each census, the representation of the several territorial constituencies in the House of the People and the Legislative Assemblies of each State shall be re-adjusted by such authority, in such manner and with effect from such date as Parliament may by law determine. A Bill providing for the matters referred to in that article is being introduced in Parliament. Provision has been made in that Bill for the setting up of a Delimitation Commission for the purpose of effecting re-adjustment of the representation in the House of the People and in the State Legislative Assemblies on the basis of the population as ascertained at the census of 1951.