Kerala High Court Declares Recent Delimitation Exercise Invalid For Eight Municipalities, One Panchayat

The Kerala Government by virtue of Kerala Municipality (Second Amendment) Act, 2024 and Kerala Panchayat Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2024 increased the ratio of number of counsellors/ panchayat members to the population in the area.

Pursuant to this amendment, government issued notification increasing the number of wards in the Panchayats and Municipalities. Consequently, Kerala Delimitation Commission issued notification to start delimitation process in these local bodies to correspond to the change in number of wards. The notification further directed that delimitation has to done in area even where there was no change in ward number according to the population in the area.

The State Government submitted that there was a significant increase in population since the last census in 2011 and the amendment was made in the Acts to reflect that increase in population.

The instant order was passed after the court considered a batch of petitions which claimed that many of these local bodies underwent a delimitation process when they were converted to a Municipality in 2015. A resident of the Padne Grama Panchayat submitted that the Panchayat underwent a delimitation process in 2015 when a part of Ori ward was declared as a 'smaller urban area' and was made a part of Neeleswaram Municipality. The residents of Mattannur Municipality submitted that the area underwent a delimitation exercise in 2017.

The Government argued that the formation/ re-constitution of local bodies in 2015 was on the basis of urbanization. It was argued though these were formed on the basis of 2011 Census, Census was not the only criteria.

The Court observed that the once the Government forms/ re-constitutes a local body, it notifies the number of seats in that local body as per Section 6(1) of the Acts. The Court said that the government and the delimitation commission cannot claim hat they have independent and distinct powers under Section 6(1) and 6(2) to vary the seats.

The Court said that once the Government fixes the number of seats under Section 6(1) of the Act, it can be varied only as per Section 6(2). The Court noted that Section 6(2) of the Municipality and Panchayat Raj Act says that number of seats can be varied “after publication of relevant figures of each census”. The Court held that this would mean that outdated or previously utilized data cannot be used for varying the seats in a Panchayat/ Municipality.

“Crucially, both Sections 6(2) emphasize that any changes to the total number of seats can occur only after the publication od latest census figures, indicating that delimitation must exist on current data. Conducting a delimitation process using outdated or previously utilized data undermines the validity of the exercise and contradicts Section 6(2) of the Act."

The Court ordered that the seats cannot be increased in those Panchayats/ Municipalities where a delimitation exercise was carried out in 2015 based on the 2011 census.

Accordingly, the court held that the amendments to the Acts increasing the ratio of counsellors to the population, notification issued by the Government re-fixing the number of seats in the local bodies and the delimitation exercise pursuant to the notification shall be inoperative and invalid for the 9 Panchayats/ Municipalities.

Case No: WP(C) No. 39894 of 2024 & Connected Cases

Case Title: Abdul Muthalib T. and Another v State of Kerala and Others & Connected Cases

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Ker) 813