Read Time: 04 minutes

Synopsis

The Supreme Court of India yesterday questioned the delay in carrying out the delimitation exercise in the Northeastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Assam despite the President's 2020 order rescinding the earlier deferment orders.

A CJI Sanjiv Khanna led bench questioned the Centre considering that it had been 4 years since the presidential order. Court was informed that the delimitation exercise for Assam took place last year but was yet to start for the other three states.

The bench also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar told Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj that the delimitation exercise was a statutory mandate and had to be done.

Notably, top court was hearing a plea filed by the Delimitation Demand Committee stating that the constitutional obligation of delimitation has not been completed in these four states since the last 51 years.

The Public Interest Litigation petition filed through Advocate Gaichangpou Gangmei stated that the denial of delimitation in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland is unjust, unreasonable, and unlawful. The last Delimitation conducted in the four states was 51 years ago, it mentioned. 

The plea has sought implementation of Section 8A of the Representation of People Act, and a direction to the Election Commission of India to appoint a Delimitation Commission and initiate the process.

Delimitation means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body.

It may also be noted that another petition has been filed challenging the delimitation process notified to be initiated in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir stating 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 Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir is unconstitutional as it amounts to classification as held in Subramanian Swamy case.

Case Title: DELIMITATION DEMAND COMMITTEE FOR THE STATE OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH ASSAM MANIPUR AND NAGALAND IN NORTH Versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS