PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 125
the questions relating to the registration of voters for election to Parliament and election to State Assemblies. And fourthly, the Bill proposes to fix the composition of the State Legislative Councils and the registration of voters for the Councils. I propose to take each of these points and explain to the House what exactly the Bill does.
First I propose to explain to the House the question of the allocation of Parliamentary seats among the States. The allocation proposed by the Bill is shown in the First Schedule. The House will recall that the Constitution lays down in article 81 the rules which have to be observed in the matter of distributing seats in Parliament among the different States. The rules to which I made reference are laid down in article
81(1)(b) and 81(1)(c). The first rule which this article lays down is that the constituency shall be so determined that there shall be not less than one member for every 750,000 and not more than one for every 500,000 of the population. The second rule which this article lays down is that whatever standard figure is chosen between these two figures—the maximum and minimum—that standard figure, so far as the States in Parts A and B are concerned, shall be uniform throughout the territory of India. That is the general direction given by the Constitution which this Bill is bound to conform to.
The standard figure adopted in this Bill for the purpose of allocating seats is one Member for every 720,000. It will be seen that this figure is in between 750,000 and 500,000. The seats for the different States are arrived at by dividing the total population of each State by this standard figure of
720,000 and you get the total number of seats for each State set out in the First Schedule to this Bill. The total population is as estimated on the 1st March 1950 according to the order issued by the President under the appropriate article of the Constitution. I believe it is article 347 ...........
Shri Bharati : Article 387.
Dr. Ambedkar : I believe hon. Members have got the notification issued by the President in which the population of the various States as estimated has been shown ...........