Supreme Court seeks response from Central government, ECI on plea by Congress leader against exclusion of north-east from delimitation

The Supreme on Monday sought the responses of the Central government and the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a petition challenging the exclusion of north-eastern States from delimitation exercise [Padi Richo vs Union of India and ors]..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli issued notice to the Centre and ECI on the plea filed by Congress leader Padi Richo and tagged it with a similar petition pending before the Court.The petition has challenged two notifications issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice.The first notification was issued on March 6, 2020. It constituted a Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and for the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. However, while the delimitation for J&K was proposed to be on the basis of population of 2011, for the four north-eastern States it was to be done on the basis of 2001 population.This, the plea said, amounted to unreasonable classification.The plea further highlighted that a year later, the Law Ministry issued another notification on March 3, 2021 amending the earlier notification. As per the new notification, the term of the Delimitation Commission was extended by a year. However, its scope was limited only to Jammu and Kashmir and the four north-eastern States were excluded. The petitioner has, therefore, sought quashing of both the notifications.Advocates Sriram Parakkat, MS Vishnu Shankar and Divya Jyoti Singh appeared for the petitioner.In March 2020, a three-member Delimitation Commission chaired by retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was formed for the delimitation of constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The commission published its final report on May 5 this year..The Supreme Court had in July issued notice to the Central government, the Election Commission of India and the States of Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradhesh on another public interest litigation petition against the exclusion of the four north-eastern States from delimitation exercise.A Bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy had issued notice on the plea that contended that the process of delimitation for States is a constitutional obligation that has not been met in the four States for the last 51 years..[Read order]