Chhattisgarh delimitation challenged in apex court

The Economic Times 8 March 2008 P 2 Delhi

THE move to hold the next polls in Chhattisgarh under a redrawn electoral map has now been challenged in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court on Friday tagged a petition challenging validity of readjustments of constituencies in Chhattisgarh along with other similar petitions, and decided to hear them together. A bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice RV Raveendran decided to hear the petition moved by Ms Renuka Singh, a former state minister belonging to the saffron camp, along with other similar pending petitions. The MLA from Costi constituency sought quashing of the decision determining fresh boundaries of constituencies in the state. She also sought direction from the apex court against the decision to disturb the constituencies reserved for SCs and STs in the state.

The Delimitation Commission has, in its report, recommended a reduction in the number of seats reserved for STs in the Chhattisgarh assembly from the present 34 to 29 in the 90-member House. The number of seats reserved for the tribals in the Lok Sabha will also, likewise, go down to three from the existing four. Worried about the fallout of the delimitation exercise on the Congress’ prospects in the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha polls, former chief minister Ajit Jogi has launched a campaign to maintain status-quo in the state. Citing the Centre’s decision to stop the delimitat i o n process from going ahead in Jharkhand and the north-eastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, he has started exerting pressure on the Manmohan Singh government to put Chhattisgarh as well in this category.

A section of state BJP has also supported him in his stop-delimitation campaign. Advocate Sakesh Kumar appearing on behalf of the BJP MLA argued that creation of new boundaries of the constituencies in the state was illegal. Citing various district-wise data in the state, the petition said, “there has been systematic attempt to show an increase in the general population in the state at the expense of SC/ST population. This aspect of the matter has not been examined by any study and the Commission has based the change/shift of the constituencies on the basis of the wrong data”. It said that the deletion of ear-marked seats for SC/STs would not be within the domain of the commission. “Hence, the readjustment of constituencies is futile and illegal,” the petition said. “Since there is an embargo by reason of third proviso to Article 82 and third proviso to Article 170 (3) by 84th Constitution Amendment Act, 2002 which freezes the increase of total number of seats untill the publication of the first census after year 2026, the unilateral increase of seats from SC/ST is contrary to the scheme originally envisaged under Article 330 and 332(3) of the constitution” the petition said.

With thanks from The Economic Times
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