Justice Ranjana Desai to head delimitation panel for J&K
Tribune News Service
Jammu, March 6
Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai, former Supreme Court Judge, will head the Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to an official order issued on Friday evening by the Union Law and Justice Department, the Central government hereby constituted the Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
According to the order, Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai will be chairperson of the panel.
After the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) to nominate one of its members to the panel, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on February 17 had nominated Sunil Arora, Election Commissioner, as its representative to the Delimitation Commission for J&K.
The Assembly elections will be held in J&K only after the panel will submit its recommendations for demarcating Assembly segments in the UT of J&K.
Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner, and respective Election Commissioners of the UT of J&K and states would be members of the panel.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration would need to appoint Election Commissioner as per the provisions of the Constitution of India.
The order mentions that appointment of Justice (retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai shall be for a period of one year from the date of the publication of this notification in the official gazette or till further orders, whichever is earlier.
Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai is former judge of the Supreme Court. She served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from September 13, 2011, to October 29, 2014.
The commission will undertake delimitation in the UT of J&K in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act (34 of 2019) and the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2002), the order reads.
