Supreme Court refuses to stay ongoing delimitation of Lok Sabha, assembly seats in Assam

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the ongoing delimitation of Assam's 14 Lok Sabha and 126 assembly seats by the Election Commission and sought the response of the Centre and the poll panel on a batch of petitions on the issue. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, agreed to examine the constitutional validity of Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 empowering the Election Commission to undertake the delimitation of constituencies. «At this stage when delimitation has commenced, having due regard to issuance of the draft proposal on June 20, 2023, it would not be proper to interdict the process at this stage. Hence while reserving the constitutional challenge, we are not issuing any orders restraining the Election Commission to take any further steps,» the bench said in its order. The top court sought the replies of the Centre, the Election Commission and the Assam government on three petitions in three weeks and said the petitioners can file their rejoinders in two weeks after that. The bench took note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for the political parties which have filed the petitions, that now all states will follow suit and take steps since the way has been cleared for the delimitation exercise for states like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. «We will list this immediately after the Delhi services ordinance case,» the CJI said.

Election Commission completes public hearings on Assam draft delimitation proposal

Ten leaders representing nine opposition parties in Assam- Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), CPI, TMC, NCP, RJD, and Anchalik Gana Morcha- recently