Election Commission holds discussion on delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir

Election Commission on Tuesday held "internal discussion" on various to aspects of delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and the process will roll out after a formal communication from Home Ministry, sources said.

The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisaiton Act 2019 provides that the number of seats in the legislative assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies will be determined by the Election Commission.

Sources said that internal discussions were held on the issue. They said a delimitation commission is set up to fix limits or boundaries of constituencies and the process regarding delimitation will start after receiving formal communication from the Ministry.

The Act, which was notified by the government on August 9, provides for the creation of two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir, which will have a legislature and Ladakh, without it.

The Act provides that the poll panel will determine the number of seats to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly having regard to the relevant provisions of the Constitution.

It says that constituencies in which seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall, as far as practicable, be located in areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest.

The Act provides that the poll panel will publish its proposals for the delimitation of constituencies together with the dissenting proposals, if any, in the Official Gazette together with a notice inviting objections and suggestions in relation to the proposals and specifying a date by which the proposals will be further considered by it.

It will consider all objections and suggestions and determine the delimitation of constituencies. Upon published in the Official Gazette, the orders shall have the full force of law and shall not be called in question in any court. The orders relating to assembly constituencies shall be laid before the Legislative Assembly of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

In India, Delimitation Commissions have been constituted 4 times - in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.