Apart from Assam, two other Northeast States – Arunachal Pradesh
and Nagaland – may undergo the delimitation exercise soon.
The Central Government has apprised the Supreme Court that it is
considering setting up delimitation commissions for Arunachal Pradesh and
Nagaland.
This was conveyed by solicitor general Tushar Mehta to a Supreme
Court Bench consisting three judges and was presided by Chief Justice of India
(CJI) DY Chandrachud.
The Supreme Court Bench was hearing a plea that sought directions
for holding delimitation exercises in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.
Mehta, while appearing for the Central Government, said the
delimitation exercise in Manipur can wait for “obvious reasons” of violence in
the State.
However, he said the Centre is considering setting up delimitation
commissions for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The Election Commission (EC) had declared on December 27,
2022 that the government had asked it in November to re-draw constituency
boundaries in Assam, where delimitation has not been done since 1976.
Within a week of the announcement, the process of data
collection through the office of the Assam Chief Electoral Officer has started.
While the EC has said it will formulate its own guidelines
for the process, no time frame has been announced. The most-recent delimitation
exercise that of Jammu and Kashmir took a little over two years to complete.
