The three member Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir headed by a former Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Desai has finalized the Delimitation Order for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 April 2022.
Delimitation Commission finalizes Delimitation Order for Jammu and Kashmir
The three member Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir headed by a former Supreme Court Judge Ranjana Desai has finalized the Delimitation Order for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 April 2022.
- The Delimitation Commission was constituted by the Govt. of India, in exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 of 2002), for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir on 6 March 2020.
- This was done by the government after the change in the status of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union Territory and its bifurcation into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in 2019.
- The President of India appointed retd. Judge Ranjana Desai as the head of the commission, Chief Election commissioner Sushil Chandra and State Election Commissioner, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir K. K. Sharma, as Ex-Officio members of the Delimitation Commission.
- The order of the commission will come into effect from the date it is notified by the President of India.
Main Points of the commission orders
- The delimitation of the Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies was done by the commission on the basis of the 2011 census.
- The Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir were last delimited in 1995 based on the 1981 Census.
- There are a total 114 Assembly constituencies in the Union Territory. 90 seats are for Jammu and Kashmir under Indian control and 24 seats have been reserved for the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.
- Out of the 90 Assembly Constituencies in the region, 43 will be part of Jammu region and 47 for Kashmir region.
- Total nine Assembly Constituencies have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes, out of which, six are in Jammu region and three in the Kashmir Valley.
- This is for the first time seats have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
- Jammu and Kashmir has five seats in Lok Sabha. The Delimitation Commission has considered the whole of Jammu and Kashmir region as one single Union Territory. Therefore, one of the Lok Sabha constituencies has been carved out combining Anantnag region in the Kashmir Valley and Rajouri and Poonch of Jammu region.
- By this reorganization, each Parliamentary Constituency will have an equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each.
What is Delimitation
- Delimitation means changing the boundaries of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly seats in the country. It is done on the basis of census data so that all constituencies have roughly the same population.
- In India Parliament has the power to make a law on creating a Delimitation commission and the President has the power to appoint the member of the Delimitation Commission
- The order of the Delimitation Commission, has the force of law and cannot be challenged in a court of law.
- In India, such Delimitation Commissions have been constituted 4 times – in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952, in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under Delimitation Act, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002.
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