Article 82 is a provision in Part V of the Constitution of India that mandates the readjustment of representation in the House of the People (Lok Sabha) after every national census. The provision, which originated as Draft Article 67(8) and was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on January 4, 1949, was created to ensure that representation in the Lok Sabha remains proportionate to the population, thereby upholding the principle of "one person, one vote".
The mechanism of Article 82 requires Parliament to enact a law, typically a Delimitation Act, to determine the authority and manner for this readjustment. This process, known as delimitation, involves two key actions: the allocation of seats in the Lok Sabha to the States, and the division of each State into territorial constituencies. The task is carried out by an independent body called the Delimitation Commission, whose orders have the force of law and cannot be challenged in any court. A key provision is that any readjustment does not affect the representation in the Lok Sabha until the dissolution of the then-existing House.
The application of Article 82 has been significantly altered by constitutional amendments to promote population control. The 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, initially froze the allocation of Lok Sabha seats to the States based on the 1971 census. This freeze was extended until the first census taken after the year 2026 by the 84th Amendment Act, 2001. However, the 87th Amendment Act, 2003, allowed for the internal readjustment and rationalisation of territorial constituency boundaries within the States, using the population figures of the 2001 census, without changing the total number of seats allocated to each State. Article 82 is closely connected to Article 81, which deals with the composition of the Lok Sabha, and the Delimitation Commission. The Supreme Court, in cases like Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India (2006), has upheld Parliament's authority to regulate the electoral process under this article.