Supreme Court Reserves Judgment on Plea Challenging J&K Delimitation

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 1st Dec. The Supreme Court reserved its decision on Thursday on a petition alleging that the government’s decision to form a delimitation commission to redraw Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir violated constitutional provisions.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, counsel for the Election Commission, and the petitioners’ lawyer appeared before a bench of Justices S K Kaul and Abhay S Oka.

“Arguments heard. Judgement reserved,” the bench said.

The counsel for the two petitioners, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, argued that the delimitation exercise was carried out in violation of the Constitution’s scheme, and that the alteration of boundaries and inclusion of extended areas should not have occurred.

The petition sought a declaration that the increase in the number of seats in Jammu and Kashmir from 107 to 114 (including 24 seats in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) violates constitutional and statutory provisions, particularly section 63 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

It had stated that the last Delimitation Commission was established on July 12, 2002, in exercise of powers conferred by section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002, following the 2001 Census, to carry out the exercise across the country.