Indian supreme court dismisses plea challenging delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir 

The Indian Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Indian apex court bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice A.S. Oka had found that the petitioners did not challenge the constitutional validity of a specific provision in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act which conferred the Delimitation Commission with the power to “carry out” the re-adjustment of constituencies in the Union Territory formed after the abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile State.

The petition filed by Srinagar residents, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr. Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, was limited to a challenge of the notification issued by the Centre in March 2020 establishing the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission and a second one in March 2021 extending its term for the purpose of conducting delimitation only for Jammu and Kashmir.

During the hearing on Monday, the court had asked why the petitioners without challenging the source of the government’s notifications, that is Section 62(2), had confined their challenge solely to the notifications.

Justice Oka had said the notifications drew their power specifically from Section 62(2) of the 2019 Act. Section 62(2) provided for the readjustment of constituencies to be carried out by the Delimitation Commission.

The petitioners, represented by senior advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala and advocates Sriram Parakkat and M.S. Vishnu Shankar, had argued that only the Election Commission of India, under Section 60 of the 2019 Act, was empowered to conduct the delimitation exercise. They had further argued before the bench that Article 170 of the Constitution barred delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2011 census. 

The petitioners had alleged that Sections 60 and 61 of the 2019 Act, which define the role of the Election Commission in the process of delimitation of constituencies, were in contradiction to Section 62.

The plea had said that if August 5, 2019, was to unite Jammu and Kashmir with India, then the delimitation process had defeated the “new order” of “One Nation One Constitution”.