The Constitution of India
Article 81
Composition of the House of the People
(1) Subject to the provisions of article, the House of the People shall consist of —
(a) not more than 4 [five hundred and thirty members] chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the States, and
(b) not more than 5 [twenty members] to represent the Union territories, chosen in such manner as Parliament may by law provide.
(2) For the purposes of sub-clause (a) of clause (1),—
(a) there shall be allotted to each State a number of seats in the House of the People in such manner that the ratio between that number and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States; and
(b) each State shall be divided into territorial constituencies in such manner that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the number of seats allotted to it is, so far as practicable, the same throughout the State:
Provided that the provisions of sub-clause (a) of this clause shall not be applicable for the purpose of allotment of seats in the House of the People to any State so long as the population of that State does not exceed six millions.
(3) In this article, the expression “population” means the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published:
Provided that the reference in this clause to the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published shall, until the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 have been published, be construed,—
(i) for the purposes of sub-clause (a) of clause (2) and the proviso to that clause, as a reference to the 1971 census; and
(ii) for the purposes of sub-clause (b) of clause (2) as a reference to the 2001 census.
Why this exists
The framers wanted the Lok Sabha to reflect 'one person, one vote, one value' — seats matching population fairly. But if seats were recalculated after every census, States that successfully slowed population growth (mostly in the south) would lose seats to States with faster growth (mostly in the north), unfairly punishing good governance. To remove this disincentive, the 42nd Amendment (1976) froze seat numbers at 1971 census levels, and later amendments (84th Amendment, 2001, and subsequent extensions) pushed that freeze forward — first to 2026, and now until the first census taken after 2026 — while still allowing internal constituency boundaries to be redrawn using the 2001 census for fairness within each State.
How courts read it
There is no landmark Supreme Court ruling that has significantly reinterpreted Article 81 itself; courts have generally left seat allocation and delimitation to Parliament and the Delimitation Commission, intervening mainly on procedural fairness of boundary-drawing rather than the population-freeze policy, which remains a matter of legislative and constitutional amendment rather than judicial re-drawing.
Common misconceptions
- Myth: Lok Sabha seats are automatically updated after every census to match current state populations.
Fact: Seat allocation between states has been frozen using the 1971 census figures since 1976, and this freeze has been extended until the first census after 2026. - Myth: The Lok Sabha will always have exactly 545 members.
Fact: Article 81 sets a ceiling — 'not more than' 530 state members plus 20 Union Territory members — not a fixed guaranteed number; actual strength has varied (e.g., 543 in recent decades) due to other laws and reorganizations.