Supreme Court grants Centre three months for delimitation in Northeast
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The Supreme Court, on Monday, granted the Centre a three-month extension to complete the long-pending delimitation exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and Assam.
A bench led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna acknowledged a request from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who sought additional time for the process. Following this, the court scheduled the next hearing for July 21 and directed the Centre to ensure the necessary steps are taken within the given timeframe.
The court had previously expressed concern over the prolonged delay in implementing the delimitation process, despite a 2020 presidential order lifting the earlier deferment. The bench questioned the government's inaction, stating that once the president rescinds a notification, the process should automatically proceed.
The Centre explained that while consultations were progressing in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, the ongoing violence in Manipur had made the situation challenging for initiating the exercise.
The hearing was based on a plea filed by the "Delimitation Demand Committee for the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur & Nagaland in North East India," urging immediate implementation of the process.
Advocate G Gangmei, representing the petitioners, argued that the 2020 presidential order made delimitation a legal obligation. He noted that two years had passed since the petition was filed, yet no concrete action had been taken in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur. Only Assam had completed its delimitation in August 2023, following an order from the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The petition further alleged that the delay violated Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to equality. It pointed out that while elections had been conducted peacefully in these states for decades, delimitation had not been carried out since the Delimitation Act was amended in 2002. This lack of action, the plea argued, put the northeastern states at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the country.
The Election Commission of India maintained that it could only proceed with the delimitation exercise once it received specific instructions from the Centre under Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.