The Centre informed the court that while consultations for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were ongoing, the violence in Manipur had created an unfavorable environment for carrying out the delimitation process.
New Delhi: Today, 17th March, The Supreme Court has given the Central Government three months to complete the pending delimitation process in the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Assam.
This decision came after the Centre, through Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, requested additional time to conduct the exercise.
The bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, accepted the Centre’s plea and postponed the next hearing to July 21, instructing the government to complete the required process within the given timeline.
Earlier, the Supreme Court expressed concerns over the delay in the delimitation process, especially after the 2020 Presidential Order, which had revoked the previous deferment of the exercise.
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The bench questioned,
“Once the president rescinds the notification, that is enough to proceed with the delimitation exercise. Where does the government come in?”
The court directed the Centre’s counsel to seek further instructions regarding the delay.
The Centre informed the court that while consultations for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland were ongoing, the violence in Manipur had created an unfavorable environment for carrying out the delimitation process.
The case was filed by the “Delimitation Demand Committee for the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur & Nagaland in North East India.”
The petitioner sought immediate implementation of the delimitation process in these four states.
Advocate G Gangmei, representing the petitioner, emphasized that the 2020 Presidential Order had made delimitation a legal obligation.
He stated, “Two years have passed since the writ petition was filed, but no concrete steps were taken to initiate delimitation in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur.”
Gangmei further pointed out that Assam had already completed its delimitation in August 2023, following an order by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) noted that specific directions from the Centre were required to initiate delimitation. This is in line with Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
The petition referred to the Presidential Order of February 28, 2020, which allowed delimitation in the four northeastern states and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The petitioners argued that the selective delay in carrying out delimitation violated the fundamental right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
The plea also emphasized that despite decades of peaceful elections in these states, no delimitation exercise had been conducted since the amendment of the Delimitation Act in 2002.
The petitioners argued that the lack of delimitation left the northeastern states at a disadvantage compared to the rest of India.
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