Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Ten opposition leaders from nine parties of Assam have approached the Supreme Court challenging Election Commission of India (ECIs) recent proposal of readjusting 126 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha Constituencies in the state by its June 20 draft order.
Questioning the methodology of carrying out the ongoing delimitation exercise and using of different average assembly sizes for different districts, the parties in the plea have said that population density or populousness has no role to play in the delimitation process.
The petitions have been filed by leaders of Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), CPI, TMC, NCP, RJD and Anchalik Gana Morcha. “While the Constitution of India envisaged an exercise to readjust constituencies to ensure that they were all composed of an almost equal population, by relying on 2001 Census figures, the ECI has created three categories of districts and has taken a different yardstick for the three categories allegedly resulting in a possible deviation of up to 33 per cent between the populations of the largest and the smallest constituencies,” the plea states.
Apart from challenging the methodology, petitioners also challenged the constitutionality of section 8A of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. “However, the provision of Section 8A discriminates against Assam and three north-east states, for which the ECI has been prescribed as the authority to conduct delimitation,” the plea states. The plea also argued that the statements made by Assam CM that the ongoing process will benefit BJP may give rise to apprehensions that the delimitation exercise is not being carried out independently.
Final hearing on Bilkis Bano case on August 7NEW DELHI: The SC has fixed August 7 as the date for the final hearing of pleas challenging the remission granted to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday fixed the matter for final hearing after recording that service of notice to the various released convicts. The bench also instructed all the parties to submit their answers and ensured that the hearing would not be deferred further. “We hold that the pleadings in the matter are complete and the respondents have been served notices in all the cases through newspaper publications or directly. All parties should file submissions, synopsis and list of dates,” the bench said.
NEW DELHI: Ten opposition leaders from nine parties of Assam have approached the Supreme Court challenging Election Commission of India (ECIs) recent proposal of readjusting 126 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha Constituencies in the state by its June 20 draft order.
Questioning the methodology of carrying out the ongoing delimitation exercise and using of different average assembly sizes for different districts, the parties in the plea have said that population density or populousness has no role to play in the delimitation process.
The petitions have been filed by leaders of Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), CPI, TMC, NCP, RJD and Anchalik Gana Morcha. “While the Constitution of India envisaged an exercise to readjust constituencies to ensure that they were all composed of an almost equal population, by relying on 2001 Census figures, the ECI has created three categories of districts and has taken a different yardstick for the three categories allegedly resulting in a possible deviation of up to 33 per cent between the populations of the largest and the smallest constituencies,” the plea states. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
Apart from challenging the methodology, petitioners also challenged the constitutionality of section 8A of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. “However, the provision of Section 8A discriminates against Assam and three north-east states, for which the ECI has been prescribed as the authority to conduct delimitation,” the plea states. The plea also argued that the statements made by Assam CM that the ongoing process will benefit BJP may give rise to apprehensions that the delimitation exercise is not being carried out independently.
Final hearing on Bilkis Bano case on August 7
NEW DELHI: The SC has fixed August 7 as the date for the final hearing of pleas challenging the remission granted to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday fixed the matter for final hearing after recording that service of notice to the various released convicts. The bench also instructed all the parties to submit their answers and ensured that the hearing would not be deferred further. “We hold that the pleadings in the matter are complete and the respondents have been served notices in all the cases through newspaper publications or directly. All parties should file submissions, synopsis and list of dates,” the bench said.
