Delimitation Commission for J&K

In Context 

• The discrepancy between the Union Government’s order for setting up the Delimitation Commission and the J&K Reorganisation Act could impact the redrawing of Assembly seats in the state.

Major Points 

• The J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, under Section 60(1), entrusts the Election Commission (EC) with delimiting seven additional seats for the 83-member J&K Assembly, besides deciding reservation for the SC and ST communities.
• However, seven months after the J&K Act was passed, through an order of March 6, 2020, the Law Ministry gave this job to the three-member Delimitation Commission headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Desai.

• The EC concluded that the government’s order does not violate the J&K Reorganisation Act since Section 62 of that Act anyway empowers the government to establish a Delimitation Commission.
  • From the first reading of Sections 60 to 64 of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, it appears that the initial division of the UT of J&K into Assembly seats is the job of the EC under Section 60.
  • It further appears (from Section 62) that any readjustment in the constituencies drawn up by the EC should be taken up by a Delimitation Commission only after the first Census done after the year 2026.

• S K Mendiratta EC’s longest-serving former legal advisor had pointed out the first legal infirmity in the Law Ministry’s gazette notification of March 6, 2020.
  • He had red-flagged this order for establishing a Delimitation Commission for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland even though a 2008 amendment to Representation of the People Act 1950 clearly states that delimitation in the four North-eastern states, when held, would fall within the EC’s remit.

• Hence, any delimitation exercise in these states by the new Delimitation Commission would have been “declared void by the courts
  • Interestingly, eight months later, the government abandoned delimitation for the four North-eastern states. 

Delimitation Exercises in J&K in the Past

• Delimitation exercises in J&K in the past have been slightly different from those in the rest of the country because of the region’s special status — which was scrapped by the Centre in August 2019. 
• Until then, the delimitation of Lok Sabha seats in J&K was governed by the Constitution of India.
• But the delimitation of the state’s Assembly seats was governed by the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution and Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.
• Assembly seats in J&K were delimited in 1963, 1973 and 1995. 
• The last exercise was conducted by the Justice (retired) KK Gupta Commission when the state was under President’s Rule and was based on the 1981 census, which formed the basis of the state elections in 1996. 
• There was no census in the state in 1991 and no Delimitation Commission was set up by the state government after the 2001 census as the J&K Assembly passed a law putting a freeze on the fresh delimitation of seats until 2026.
  • This freeze was upheld by the Supreme Court.
  •  The freeze, some political parties argue, has created inequity for the Jammu region.

• Commission set up in 2020
  • In March 2020, six months after the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir, the Delimitation Commission was constituted to the Union Territory.
  • It is headed by Justice (retired) Ranjana Desai.
  • The commission has five MPs from Jammu and Kashmir as associate members.

• Present status 
  • Although the Commission was tasked to finish delimitation in a year, on March 4 2021, it was granted a year’s extension.
  • This was done at the request of the panel members since it couldn’t make much progress due to the Covid-19-induced shutdown across the country. 
  • In June 2021, the Election Commission wrote to Deputy Commissioners of all 20 districts in J&K seeking fresh information on several aspects including population density and topography in all the districts and Assembly constituencies. 

Significance

• Delimitation is crucial for starting the political process in J&K that would eventually lead to elections.
• It will redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State. Aside from changing the limits of a constituency, the process may result in change in the number of seats in a state.

Source: IE