Yesterday, the Supreme Court of India expressed concern over the delay in conducting the delimitation exercise in the North eastern states of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Assam, despite a 2020 presidential order rescinding the previous deferment.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna pointed out that four years had passed since the order, with the delimitation process completed for Assam last year but not yet initiated for the other three states.

The bench, also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar, emphasized to Additional Solicitor General KM Natraj that the delimitation exercise was a statutory requirement and needed to be carried out.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the Delimitation Demand Committee, which highlighted that the constitutional mandate for delimitation in these states had not been fulfilled in the past 51 years. The Public Interest Litigation, submitted by Advocate Gaichangpou Gangmei, argued that the failure to conduct delimitation in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, and Nagaland was unjust, unreasonable, and unlawful, noting that the last delimitation in these states occurred 51 years ago.

The petition called for the implementation of Section 8A of the Representation of People Act and requested that the Election Commission of India appoint a Delimitation Commission to begin the process. Delimitation refers to the process of determining the boundaries of electoral constituencies.

Additionally, another petition was filed challenging the delimitation process announced for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

It argued that the initial inclusion of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland in the delimitation process, followed by their subsequent exclusion, was unconstitutional, constituting an unlawful classification as determined in the Subramanian Swamy case.