Supreme Court refuses to stay ongoing delimitation of LS, Assembly seats in Assam

SC sought Centre and the Election Commission's replies on the petitions in three weeks and said the petitioners can file their rejoinders in two weeks after that.

The Supreme Court Monday declined to stay the delimitation process for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Assam, initiated through the Election Commission (EC).

Ten Opposition leaders from Assam belonging to nine different political parties had approached the apex court challenging the draft proposal of the EC issued on June 20 for the delimitation of Assam’s 126 Assembly constituencies and 14 Lok Sabha constituencies.

A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, “At this stage when delimitation has commended having due regard to issuance of the draft proposal in June 2023, it would not be proper to interdict the process at this stage."

The top court noted that the President had deferred the delimitation exercise in Assam. However in February 2020, the law ministry issued a notification announcing that since the situation had returned to normal, the President had rescinded the earlier notification.

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The bench said that Section 8A the Representation of People Act, 1950 makes a special provision for four states and in the case of these states, the delimitation exercise is carried out by the EC upon rescinding the deferment order.

The court, however, issued notice to the EC on a plea by the petitioners challenging validity of Section 8A, which had been cited for the conduct of the delimitation process.

Section 8A of the RPA, 1950 contains specific provisions for the delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, and Nagaland.

The top court noted that if the President feels that situation in these states is conducive for the delimitation exercise then the deferment order passed in Delimitation Act may be rescinded so that the process could be carried out. It noted that sub-sections contain the norms which are to be followed by the poll panel in carrying out the delimitation exercise.

With regard to plea against validity of Section 8A and the process followed therein, the bench said that the challenge merits scrutiny and issued notice.

It said the reply should be filed within three weeks and the rejoinder should be filed within two weeks thereafter.

The petitioners had challenged the methodology adopted by the EC by taking different average assembly sizes for different districts and states, and said that population density or population has no role to play in the process of delimitation. The petitioners belonged to Indian National Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal. CPI, CPI(M), Assam Jatiya Parishad, Raijor Dal, and Anchalik Gana Morcha

The petitioners have argued that the entire exercise by the poll panel for readjusting the extent of 126 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam is arbitrary and opaque, apart from being discriminatory to Assam.