Supreme Court to hear plea against delimitation on November 29
New Delhi, November 16
The Supreme Court (SC) said on Wednesday that it would hear on November 29 a plea challenging the government’s decision to constitute the Delimitation Commission for redrawing the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in J&K. The plea stated that the move violated constitutional provisions.
A Bench of Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that he had to put some documents on record. Mehta said he had a word with the secretary concerned who dealt with the issue.
The Bench, while taking a note of his submission, said the documents be filed within a week and posted the plea for hearing on November 29. The apex court had on May 13 observed the petitioners had not challenged the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and therefore, pleadings concerning that were to be ignored. It had noted in its order that the challenge really was to the exercise undertaken in respect of the delimitation pursuant to the notifications, including those of March 6, 2020 and March 3, 2021.
The top court had asked the respondents — the Centre, the J&K administration and the Election Commission of India — to file counter affidavit within six weeks. The counsel appearing for the two petitioners, Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, argued the delimitation exercise was carried out in contravention of the scheme of the Constitution.
