New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the judiciary cannot challenge the delimitation orders in Jammu & Kashmir after the Gazette notification is passed. The response filed by the MHA and ECI, opposing the pleas challenging the formation of the Delimitation Commission, stated that judicial interference in the matter would be violative of Article 329(a) of the Constitution which bars the interference by courts in electoral matters.
The response filed by the Secretary of ECI further highlighted that in terms of Section 10(2) of the Delimitation Act, once the Delimitation Orders are published in the Gazette, they acquire the force of law and therefore cannot be challenged. The response also underlined that the plea is misplaced and petitioners seem to be unclear about the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
It further clarified that the Commission was set up two years before the plea was filed and has already published orders in the Gazette. "There is no justification by the petitioner for the delay in filing the plea. The members of the public were given full opportunity to make oral and written submissions to the Delimitation Commission before the final order was published," it adds.
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The Commission also pointed out that similar observations were made by the Supreme Court in Assn. of Residents of Mhow (ROM) vs Delimitation Commission of India and J&K National Panthers Party vs Union of India.
The pleas challenging the delimitation exercise were filed by J&K residents Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr Mohammad Ayub Mattoo in 2022. They stated that basing the delimitation process on the 2011 population census is unconstitutional as no population census operation was carried out in 2011 for the UT of J&K. It further challenged the increase in the number of seats from 107 to 114 in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
