Former Madras High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman is pushing for women's reservation in India's parliament without waiting for delimitation or census updates. At the book launch of The Delimitation Debate: Union and its Units in Chennai, July 23, 2026, he said stopping delimitation is key to fair representation.
Hariparanthaman cautioned that expanding Lok Sabha seats based on population might hurt southern states, which followed national population policies well. He believes the current 543 seats are enough for good debate. “More seats,less discussion,” he warned,pointing out risks to parliamentary talks.
He also suggested the Rajya Sabha adopt a system like U.S. Senate to balance state representation. His comments highlight concerns over regional power imbalances in India.
Retired IAS officer K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty criticized the Delimitation Commission's lack of accountability, with Article 329(a) keeping its proposals beyond challenge. Led by a retired Supreme Court judge,Chief Election Commissioner,and State Election Commissioner,Shetty called it “black box.”
Shetty proposed a Canadian-style “dialogue model,” where a parliamentary sub-committee reviews Commission's work before it's final. This could boost transparency and public input. He also suggested making the Rajya Sabha like the U.S. Senate and using Brazil's proportional representation for Lok Sabha to balance populous and less populous states.
For fairer representation, Shetty argued for freezing delimitation until all states meet a narrow National Total Fertility Rate range,ensuring seats match demographic realities.
N. Ram,Director of The Hindu Group, stressed translating the book's ideas into more languages to reach a broader audience. The event featured Nirmala Lakshman, Publisher of The Hindu Group, and Suresh Nambath, Editor of The Hindu.
The book,219th from The Hindu Group since 2017,includes 17 essays on delimitation,federalism, representation, and Census. It tackles the challenge of limited data access for effective delimitation in India. Contributors include Ashok Lavasa, ex-Election Commissioner; S.Y . Quraishi,ex-Chief Election Commissioner; G.N. Devy, linguist and activist; Zoya Hasan, Professor Emerita at JNU; and Radha Kumar, ex-Director-General of Delhi Policy Group.
