Supreme Court dismisses plea challenging governments' decision to take up delimitation in Jammu & Kashmir
"According to Election Laws, it is only the Election Commission that must carry out the process of delimitation (necessary updation) after the Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Delimitation Order, 2008 is notified," the plea stated.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the delimitation exercise carried out for redrawing the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka further clarified that the instant decision must not be considered as giving imprimatur to the decisions taken in relation to Article 370.
Notably, in March 2022 a plea was filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking a direction in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the increase in the number of seats from 83 to 90 i.e., (107 to 114 including 24 seats in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) in Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir by the central government is ultra vires the Articles 81, 82, 170, 330 and 332 and Section 63 of the Jammu & Kashmir Re-organisation Act, 2019.
Delimitation means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.
While refusing to stay the ongoing delimitation process at the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court in May last year had asked the petitioner’s counsel, Senior Advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala to be mindful of his language used in Court.
The exchange pertained to the bench asking the counsel whether he had raised some issues concerning Article 370 issue in the current petition which essentially challenged the delimitation exercise undertaken in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, pursuant to the notifications of 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The exchange:
Bench: You also seek to raise some issues on abrogation of Article 370.
Counsel: On 5th August 2019, Kashmir became a part of the country….
Justice Kaul: Be mindful of the language you use. Kashmir has always been a part of the country!
"While Art. 170 of the Constitution of India provides that the next delimitation in the country will be taken up after 2026, why has the UT of Jammu and Kashmir been singled out?", the plea questioned.
It further sought a declaration that the notification on constituting the Delimitation Commission to take up delimitation in the UT of J&K is unconstitutional as it amounts to classification and violates Article 14.
It was the case of the petitioners that since the last Delimitation Commission was set up on 12th July 2002, as per section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002, after the 2001 Census to carry out the exercise throughout the country, the Commission had clearly stated that the total number of existing seats in the Legislative Assemblies of all states, including UTs of the National Capital Region and Pondicherry, as fixed based on the 1971 census shall remain unaltered till the first census to be taken after the year 2026.
Furthermore, the plea argued that since the notification originally included the names of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, their subsequent omission from the process of delimitation and conducting delimitation only for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is unconstitutional as it amounts to classification as held in Subramanian Swamy case.
Case Title: Haji Abdul Gani Khan & Anr. vs. Union of India & Ors.