Women’s reservation should be implemented without delimitation: Justice Hariparanthaman
Former Madras High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman argues that women's reservation in Indian politics should be implemented immediately without waiting for the delimitation of constituencies. He warns that increasing parliamentary seats based on population could disadvantage southern states.
Why it matters
The debate over delimitation and political representation is central to the balance of power between India's northern and southern states.
The freeze on delimitation of parliamentary constituencies should continue, and women’s reservation should be implemented immediately after being delinked from delimitation and the Census, former Madras High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman (retd.) said on Thursday (July 23, 2026).
Releasing the book, The Delimitation Debate: The Union and its Units, published by The Hindu Group at its headquarters in Chennai, the former judge cautioned that an increase in the number of Lok Sabha seats would hamper meaningful deliberations in the House.
“The problem of raising the numbers is that deliberations cannot take place,” he said. Besides, if the increase is based on population, southern States will stand to lose adequate representation in the Lok Sabha. This would amount to penalising the southern States for having implemented the national population policy well. “Taking into consideration other democracies, 543 itself is a good number,” he said.
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