News Desk: On Friday, the Supreme Court sought response from Central and Assam government on plea questioning the exercise of delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the state of Assam. Chief Justice SA Bobde has also issued a notice in the plea filed by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
The petition sought directions for 28 February order to be quashed which has “rescinded” an earlier notification of February 8, 2008, that had deferred the process of delimitation for Assam.
The plea submits that “the decision to conduct the pending process of delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies, is not only arbitrary and hasty decision but stands contrary to the very idea behind conducting delimitation inasmuch as the present delimitation exercise is sought to be conducted on the basis of Census 2001, while Census 2011 has already been conducted and Census 2021 is underway”.
It is stated that apart from being unjustified with regard to the conclusion of the NRC preparation for the State of Assam (which is yet to be completed ), the delimitation process was earlier deferred in 2008 on the grounds that the 2001 census was outdated.
The plea claims that the delimitation proposed shall change the constituencies creating an impact on the voting rights and preferences of a large number of voters and candidates. It further alleged that data relied upon for the proposed delimitation is outdated and “stale”.
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