Time may be running out for a plea in Supreme Court challenging J&K delimitation
The HinduTime may be running out for a petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Centre’s decision to appoint a Delimitation Commission headed by former apex court judge, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, to redraw Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the former State. The petition filed by two Jammu and Kashmir residents, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, wants the Supreme Court to also examine why Jammu and Kashmir has been “singled out” for delimitation when Article 170 of the Constitution says that such an exercise for the entire country was due only in the year 2026. Second notification It highlighted how the Centre had first issued a notification on March 6, 2020 constituting the Commission led by Justice Desai to conduct the delimitation of the constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. "When the last Delimitation Commission was set up on July 12, 2002 after the 2001 census to carry out the exercise throughout the country, it had clearly stated that the total number of existing seats in the legislative Assemblies of all States, including Union Territories of the National Capital Region and Puducherry, fixed on the basis of the 1971 census, should remain unaltered till the census to be taken after the year 2026," the petition argued.