Two residents of Jammu & Kashmir Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr Mohammad Ayub Mattoo moved to the Supreme Court challenging the exercise of Delimitation in the union territory. The plea made by the residents states that the Delimitation exercise has seized the jurisdiction of The Election Commission of India.
Their plea resonates with the demand to withdraw the Delimitation exercise in Jammu & Kashmir. The commission is the result of the March 2020 decision of the central government to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
On 6th March 2020, the government had issued a notification under section 3 of the Delimitation act 2002, resulting in the formation of a Delimitation Commission for a period of one year for the delimitation of the assembly and parliamentary constituencies of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland.
Later, with the notification on 3rd March 2021, the northeast states were omitted and the Delimitation exercise was extended to one more year, specifically limited to the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, this they said is unconstitutional as it will lead to classification.
The plea further argues, according to article 170 mentioned in the constitution of India, the next Delimitation should be taken out in 2026 and that any decision on the Delimitation of J&K should be taken only after the amendments made in the constitution.
The petitioners mentioned that the Delimitation in J&K is exercised on the basis of the 2011 population while the Delimitation in the northeast states is done on the basis of the population of 2001. This, as the plea states, is unconstitutional.