They announced their inability to associate with proceedings of the Delimitation Commission on Thursday and urged its chairperson Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai not to go ahead with the process of delimitation of assembly constituencies as the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 under which the Article 370 was abrogated is under judicial scrutiny of the Supreme Court.
Farooq Abdullah. (File Photo)
National Conference (NC) chief Farooq Abdullah and two other party MPs on Wednesday decided to keep away from the first meeting of the Delimitation Commission that has been fixed on Thursday in New Delhi.
They announced their inability to associate with proceedings of the Delimitation Commission on Thursday and urged its chairperson Justice (Retd) Ranjana Prakash Desai not to go ahead with the process of delimitation of assembly constituencies as the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 under which the Article 370 was abrogated is under judicial scrutiny of the Supreme Court.
Mohammad Akbar Lone and Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, NC MPs are also signatories to the letter expressing their inability to associate with proceedings of the commission on 18 February when the first meeting of the commission has been fixed in New Delhi. The three NC MPs are associate members of the commission.
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In a 3-page letter to chairperson of the commission, these MPs have pointed out that the commission has been established under the provisions of the Part-V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019 and the provision of Delimitation Act, 2002.
“In our view the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 is palpably unconstitutional and has been enacted in disregard and violation of mandate and spirit of Constitution of India and therefore not to be acted upon”.
“The Hon’ble Supreme Court has refered the petitions against the Reorganisation Act to the constitutional bench (5 judge) for consideration and to examine the Constitutional validity of the Act..”, they pointed out.
They urged the chairperson not to go ahead with the meeting as the Supreme Court is yet to decide on the Constitutional validity of the Act.
The NC MPs also pointed out that the Supreme Court had upheld the amendment in 2002 of the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of People’s Act 1957 that provided for delimitation of assembly constituencies after the relevant figures for the first census taken after the year 2026 were published.
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