After boycotting, NC to participate in next Delimitation Commission meeting

Confirming the participation, National Conference MP Justice (R) Hasnain Masoodi told ETV Bharat that the three Parliamentarians will meet the commission members.

Srinagar: After boycotting the first meeting of the Delimitation Commission this year in February, National Conference will finally participate in the meeting to be held in New Delhi on December 20.

Confirming the participation, National Conference MP Justice (R) Hasnain Masoodi told ETV Bharat that the three Parliamentarians will meet the commission members.

"We will participate in the meeting to be held in New Delhi on 20 December and put forth our apprehensions and opinion before the commission about delimitation," Masoodi said.

In February this year, the NC had urged the delimitation commission to halt its exercise citing constitutional validity of abrogation of Article 370 and JK Reorganisation Act 2019 and petitions against them in the Supreme Court.

"The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 is palpably unconstitutional and has been enacted in disregard and violation of mandate and spirit of Constitution of India and therefore not to be acted upon. We have thrown challenge to Constitutional validity of the Act, 2019, exercise of powers where-under the meeting in question is proposed to be held, as also C.O. 272 and C.O. 273 of 2019, in Writ Petition (Civil) 1037 of 2019 in the Supreme Court. The Act and C.O. 272 and C.O 273 of 2019 are also questioned in a number of Writ Petitions awaiting disposal, on date, before the court," the MPs, who are associate members of the Commission, had written in a letter to the Commission in February.

Headed by Justice (R) Ranjana Prakash Desai, the Commission was constituted by the Union Ministry for Law and Justice on March 6, 2020, eight months after the abrogation of special status and division of Jammu and Kashmir state into a Union Territory.

The Ministry had mentioned that term of the chairperson of the Commission will be for a period of one year, which will expire on March 5, 2021.

Besides Justice Desai, a retired Judge of Supreme Court, the Delimitation Commission members include Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner and KK Sharma, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Jammu and Kashmir.

The Associate Members include Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Dr Jitendra Singh, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, all Lok Sabha members from Jammu and Kashmir.

Former Jammu and Kashmir state had 111 seats including 24 reserved for Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. After division of JK into two UTs, the number of assembly seats have been increased to 90, with four seats of Ladakh UT abolished. Two seats have been reserved for women.

However, with increase of seven seats, J&K UT will have an Assembly of 90 seats. The previous Assembly, Kashmir had 46 seats, Jammu 37 and Ladakh four.

Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies was last held in 1994-95 during the President’s Rule when seats of the erstwhile State Assembly were raised from 76 to 87.

Jammu region’s seats were increased from 32 to 37, Kashmir’s from 42 to 46 and Ladakh’s two to four.

However, the delimitation was frozen in 2002 by the then National Conference Government headed by Dr Farooq Abdullah in lines with the decision taken by then Central Government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Elections to the Legislative Assembly will be held only after delimitation of Assembly constituencies is completed.