The Boundary Commission, headed by Sir Cyril Radcliffe, was instructed to demarcate the boundaries between the newly created states of India and Pakistan on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. It had power to take into account “other factors” as well. The Radcliffe line, so demarcated, is a 3,323 km long, boundary demarcation line whose western side serves as Indo-Pakistan border and the eastern side serves as the present Indo- Bangladesh Border. It is argued that the line was hastily created as the Sikh population was literally divided into half between the two countries. An example of confusion was Lahore, which was initially decided to be given to India but later the decision was reversed. Also, the transfer of Chittagong hill tracts to Pakistan came as a surprise to the tribes because the area had 97% Buddhist population and they always sided with India. It can be said that the Radcliffe line was not created with clinical precision and attention to details due to factors, like the following:

• Lack of familiarity: Radcliff had never been to India before and was not even aware of the location of either Punjab or Bengal. Along with that, he was not able to do any proper survey of the land he intended to divide because of the hot weather of June.
• Time constraint: The boundary line was demarcated in just five weeks during July and August. The meetings of both the Commissions (Punjab and Bengal) were taking place simultaneously. Radcliffe did not have enough time to attend all the sittings in person and had to depend upon the records of the proceedings.
• Lack of expertise: All 4 members of the commissions were lawyers and none of them had specialised knowledge of boundary demarcation. Outside advisers, such as the UN, were not consulted.
• Deadlock between parties: Each member submitted a separate and different report in favour of the country they belonged to. For instance, members nominated by Congress demanded entire Lahore and Nankana Sahib for India, while those of Muslim League claimed entire Doab for Pakistan. They were always at a deadlock. Thus, the final decision was of Radcliff alone.
• Lack of representation: Some communities did not have any official representation in the Commission. For example, the Buddhist tribes belonging to Chittagong Hill tracts.
• Implementation issues: Though the Commission had submitted its report on 9th and 12th August, it was published two days after the division. The report was not comprehensively discussed and the responsibility of implementing this award was put over the newly formed governments in these areas.

Such hasty and unplanned division led to confusion among masses and resulted into one of the world’s biggest migration and communal violence on a mass scale.