SC issues notice to Centre on plea for delimitation exercise in northeast

A bench sought a response from the Central Ministries and others on the plea urging to conduct delimitation exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice, and Chief Election Commissioner on a plea seeking direction to conduct delimitation exercise in four northeastern states.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy sought a response from the Central Ministries and others on the plea urging to conduct delimitation exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland as per the Representation of People Act, 1950.

The petition filed by the Delimitation Demand Committee said that the delimitation exercise has not been carried out for the last 51 years in these states.

These states have selectively been denied delimitation while delimitation exercises have been conducted in the rest of India, hence violating fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens of India under Article 14 of the Constitution, stated the petitioner.

The plea sought directions to constitute a Delimitation Commission in terms of the provision under the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 8A of the Representation of People (Amendment) Act, 1956.

The petition said that it is already been two decades since the Delimitation Act, 2002 was amended and still, no delimitation exercises have been conducted in the four north-eastern states citing law and order problems, however, since 2002, various parliamentary and state assembly elections have been conducted successfully in these states without any law and order problems cropping up.