The Delimitation Demand Committee for the North-Eastern states (DDC-NE) of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur on Tuesday said it has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court against the denial of justice to the people of the four NE states.
The same has been admitted vide Diary No 12880 of 2022, titled “Delimitation Demand Committee for the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland in North East India Vs Union of India," the DDC-NE said at a press conference held at the Press Club of India, New Delhi on Tuesday (August 9, 2022).
The DDC-NE stated that selectively denying delimitation to the said four NE states, while the delimitation exercises have been completed in rest of the country in 2008, pursuant to the Delimitation Act, 2002 is in violation of the fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution.
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The committee stated that the Supreme Court on July 25, 2022 had issued a notice, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct delimitation exercise of Parliamentary and State Assembly Constituencies in the four North-Eastern states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur as per the Representation of People's Act, 1950.
The apex court also granted the petitioners (DDC-NE) the liberty to serve notices to the Standing Counsels of the four NE states, the committee stated.
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It pointed out that the Presidential's order dated February 28, 2020 allowed for conducting delimitation exercise in the said four NE states and subsequently, though 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 and appointed retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as the chairperson but, unfortunately, the exercise was restricted only to Jammu and Kashmir.
Relying on the said order, the petitioner(s) DDC-NE had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister of India for the implementation of the Delimitation Act, 2002 in these four states in 2021 and 2022 but no response has been recieved yet, it stated.
The plea in the PIL is that selectively denying delimitation to the said four NE states while the same exercise was being conducted in the rest of India is in violation of the fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution, the DDC-NE stated.
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The petition also mentioned: "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.
"Therefore, the people of the four NE states have exhausted all available remedies as all our petitions and memorandums to the authorities concerned have fallen on deaf ears. Our only available hope is now to knock on the door of the court to deliver justice to the people of these four NE states as all other government machinery have failed to do so. Hence, the filing of PIL in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India".
