Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Delimitation of North East and J&K)

Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Delimitation of North East and J&K

A former legal advisor to the Election Commission (EC) has red-flagged the Centre’s order setting up a Delimitation Commission for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Assam and Nagaland, calling it “unconstitutional” and “illegal”. ( On March 6, the Law Ministry notified the Delimitation Commission for the four northeast states and Jammu and Kashmir, which was also left out in 200208. Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is its chairperson, and Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra is the EC’s representative on the panel.

Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to represent changes in population.
In this process, the number of seats allocated to a state may also change.
The objective is to provide equal representation for equal population segments, and a fair division of geographical areas, so that no political party has an advantage.
The Delimitation Commission’s orders cannot be questioned before any court.
Delimitation is done on the basis of the preceding Census.
The first such exercise in 1950-51 was carried out by the President, with the help of the Election Commission. Following the Delimitation Commission Act in 1952, all such exercises have been conducted by Delimitation Commissions — set up in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002.
Last delimitation exercise was held between July 2002 and March 31, 2008, based on the 2001 Census, only readjusted boundaries of existing Lok Sabha and Assembly seats and reworked the number of reserved seats.
There was no delimitation after the 1981 and 1991 Censuses.

When delimitation last took place in the rest of the country in 2002-08, these four above mentioned states had been left out.
In Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, various organisations had moved the Guwahati High Court against the 2002-08 exercise, challenging the use of the 2001 Census for reference.
One of the reasons given was that National Register of Citizens (NRC) was yet to be updated.
The Delimitation Act was amended in 2008, and on February 8, 2008, Presidential orders were issued to defer delimitation in these four states.

There is a freeze until 2026 on the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in any state. Delimitation will only redraw the boundaries of seats in each state, and can rework the number of reserved seats for Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes.
On February 28 this year, President Ram Nath Kovind cleared the decks for the resumption of the delimitation exercise in the four states by cancelling the order of February 8, 2008.
Legislative Department of the Law Ministry said “it appears that the circumstances that led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise” in Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland “have ceased to exist and that the delimitation of the constituencies as envisaged under the Delimitation Act, 2002 could be carried out now”. It noted that there had been a reduction in insurgency incidents, making the situation conducive for carrying out delimitation.

In 2008, after the President deferred delimitation in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, the Parliament decided that instead of creating another Delimitation Commission in future for the limited purpose of redrawing seat boundaries in the four northeastern states, the exercise there would be carried out by the EC.
The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RP Act, 1950) was amended, and Section 8A was introduced for this purpose.
Since the RP Act 1950 clearly states that delimitation in the four northeastern states, when held, would fall within the EC’s remit, hence, any delimitation exercise in Arunachal, Manipur, Assam and Nagaland by the new Delimitation Commission would be “declared void by the courts” and, subsequently, result in “wastage of huge precious public funds”.