Supreme Court dismisses challenge to delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir

A bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, in its judgement held that the decision on delimitation won't have a bearing on separate batches of matters where abrogation of Article 370 is under challenge before a Constitution bench.

While dismissing a plea questioning setting up of a delimitation commission to redraw the assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Supreme Court said, the judgment has clarified that the dismissal of the petition should not be construed as giving imprimatur to the decisions taken in relation to Article 370 as the said issue is pending before a Constitution Bench.

Senior Advocate, Ravi Shankar Jandhyala, representing the petitioners had contended that the delimitation exercise was in violation of the scheme of the Constitution of India, especially Article 170(3), which had frozen delimitation till the first census after 2026.

Jandhyala had argued that the delimitation exercise was being carried out in the teeth of constitutional and statutory provisions. He had further submitted that after the delimitation order was passed in the year 2008, no further delimitation exercise could have been undertaken.

The Senior Counsel had emphasised that post 2008, all delimitation related exercise can be carried out only by the Election Commission and not a Delimitation commission.