New Delhi, March 29: Two residents of Jammu and Kashmir have moved a writ petition before the Supreme Court challenging the March 2020 decision of the Centre to appoint a Delimitation Commission to redraw the Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of the Union Territory. The petition has been filed by Haji Abdul Gani Khan and Dr. Mohammad Ayub Mattoo, seeking a declaration that the constitution of the Delimitation Commission under Section 3 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 is without power, jurisdiction and authority. The petition said the order to increase the number of seats from 83 to 90 (107 to 114 including 24 seats in Pakistan occupied Kashmir) in Jammu & Kashmir was ultra vires under Articles 81, 82, 170, 330 and 332 and Section 63 of the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act, 2019. It further sought that the notification on constituting the Delimitation Commission to take up delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir was unconstitutional as it amounted to violating Article 14. The petitioners said that since the last Delimitation Commission was set up on July 12, 2002, the Commission had stated that the total number of existing seats in the Assemblies of all states, as fixed based on the 1971 census shall remain unaltered till the first census to be taken after the year 2026. The petition is expected to come up for hearing before the Supreme Court within a week.
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