Doesn't Appear That ECI Requires Authorisation Of Union Govt For Delimitation In 4 North Eastern States : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, while hearing a petition seeking for delimitation in four north-eastern states of India, namely, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, orally observed that it seemed that the Election Commission of India did not require the authorisation of the Government of India to conduct the exercise of delimitation. The matter was listed before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra. 

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners in the matter, stated that he was not going to be addressing the states of Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland and would solely be focusing on Arunachal Pradesh alone in today's proceedings. He submitted–

"At this stage, I am not addressing Manipur, Assam, and Nagaland. But Arunachal, I have something to say. Your lordships have issued notice. Arunachal has chosen not to file a reply. The Election Commission under Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 is the authority which has to respond. It has filed its reply. Now the Election Commission has taken a stand that the delimitation act is not to be done by them but it has to be done after the direction which comes from the Government of India. The section does not provide that. But the problem is that the reply has already come."

Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 provides for delimitation of parliamentary and assembly Constituencies in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur or Nagaland. It states that if the President is satisfied that the conditions prevailing in the aforementioned States are conducive for the conduct of delimitation exercise, the president may rescind the deferment order issued under the provisions of Section 10A of the Delimitation Act, 2002 in relation to that State, and provide for the conduct of delimitation exercise in the State by the Election Commission.

It then adds that the after such deferment order, the ECI can carryout delimitation in the State. 

Senior Advocate Sankaranarayanan submitted that the deferment order had been rescinded in 2020 and that the Ministry of Home Affairs had two notifications on basis of which the rescinding had happened.

Advocate Amit Sharma, appearing for the ECI, submitted – 

"There was a notification issued in 2021, 6th March. I have stated in my counter also that till the time we get intimation from the Central Government, we cannot proceed."

At this juncture, the Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta sought for the matter to be deferred. CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"It doesn't appear that the Election Commission required the authorisation of the Government of India...We will list it on the Tuesday after the next Tuesday."

Accordingly, the matter will now be heard on July 25, 2023.

Background

The petition refers to the President's order dated February 28, 2020 that allowed for conducting delimitation exercise in the 4 NE states. It further contends that although the Government of India by a notification issued on March 6, 2020 had constituted a Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland along with appointing retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as the Chairperson, but exercise was only restricted to Jammu and Kashmir. Relying on the order, the petition argues that the petitioner(s) had submitted memorandum to the Prime Minister of India for the implementation of the Delimitation Act, 2002 in these four states in 2021 and 2022 but has not received any response. It has been stated in the plea that selectively denying delimitation while the same exercise was being conducted in the rest of India violated the fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution.

The petition further states that–

"It has been already two decades since the Delimitation Act, 2002 was amended and no delimitation exercises have been conducted in the four North-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland nor under Section 8A of the Representation of Peoples Act in the name of law-and-order problems. However, since 2002 it is to be noted that various parliamentary and state assembly elections have been conducted successfully in these four North Eastern states without any issue of law-and-order problems. In all fairness these four North- eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland deserved equal treatment per-se with rest of India and delimitation exercise ought be conducted at the earliest either by constituting a commission under the Delimitation Act, 2002 or through the Election Commission under Section 8A of Representation of Peoples Act as there are no justifiable reason that exist for not conducting delimitation."

The petition has been drafted by Advocate Gaichangpou Gangmei.

Case Title: Delimitation Demand Committee for the State of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur & Nagaland in North East India v Union of India| Diary No 12880 of 2022