The Supreme Court on July 24 declined to stay the delimitation exercise under way in Assam, saying it will not be proper to intervene at this stage.
Also read: Explained | Assam’s delimitation test
“At this stage when delimitation has commenced, having due regard to issuance of the draft proposal in June 2023, it will not be proper to interdict the process. Hence, while reserving the constitutional challenge, we are not issuing any orders restraining the Election Commission to take any further steps,” the court observed.
The Bench however agreed to examine the validity of Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act. It issued notice to the Union and Assam governments on this aspect. The court posted the case after five weeks.
Ten leaders representing nine opposition parties in Assam — the Congress, the Raijor Dal, the Assam Jatiya Parishad, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the Communist Party of India, the Trinamool Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Anchalik Gana Morcha — recently filed a plea in the top court challenging the ongoing delimitation process.
‘Little regard to rules’
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioners, argued that the delimitation exercise in Assam is being carried out with little regard to the rules. He said the Delimitation Commission should have ideally been headed by a retired apex court judge.
Also read | Is the delimitation question settled?
“The government notification says the Election Commission is to complete the process. From where does the Law Ministry get this power? This is a non-representative process. It is de hors the underlying basic feature of the Constitution,” Mr. Sibal argued.
“For the rest of the country, delimitation has been carried out by a high-powered body headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and such a commission was formed for Jammu and Kashmir as well. However, the provision of Section 8A discriminates against Assam and three northeastern States, for which the Election Commission has been prescribed as the authority to conduct delimitation,” the plea stated.
The petition raised doubts about the methodology adopted by the Election Commission by taking different average Assembly sizes for different districts. The plea contended that population density has no role to play in the process of delimitation. .
