(a) whether there is any proposal to increase the number of Members of Parliament in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the number of people represented by each of the Member of Parliament in 1952 compared to the number as on date?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (b): As per article 82 of the Constitution of India, 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. Last proviso to the said article enjoins that until the relevant figures of the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, it shall not be necessary to readjust the allocation of seats in the House of People to the States as readjusted on the basis of the 1971 Census.
Article 80 of the constitution lays down that the Council of States shall consist of twelve members to be nominated by the President in accordance with the provisions of clause (3) thereof and not more than two hundred and thirty-eight representatives of the States and of the Union territories.
(c) In the year 1952, about 7,26,535 people were represented by each Member in the House of the People considering 36,10,88,090 was the population as ascertained by the Registrar General of India in 1951 and the number of seats in the House was 497.
Similarly, about 22,29,935 people are represented by each Member in the Seventeenth Lok Sabha taking into account the population as per census of 2011 is 121,08,54,977 and the number of seats in the House is 543.