Delimitation commission formed

The government on Friday constituted a DelimitationCommission, to be headed by former Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai,to redraw Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies of Assam, a Law Ministrynotification said.

Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state electioncommissioners of Jammu and Kashmir and the four states will be the ex-officiomembers, it said.

The Commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu andKashmir in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and KashmirReorganisation Act, and of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland inaccordance with the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002, the notificationsaid.

Delimitation is the process of fixing limits or boundariesof territorial constituencies in a country or a province with a legislativebody. However the number of constituencies will remain same.

The appointment of Justice (retd) Desai will be for a periodof one year or till further orders, whichever is earlier, the notificationsaid.

On February 28, the government had cancelled its earliernotifications which deferred delimitation in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur andArunachal Pradesh due to security issues, saying the exercise could be carriedout "now" as the previous circumstances cease to exist.

The cancelation of the notifications had paved the way fordelimitation in the four northeastern states.

The "order" issued by the Legislative Department of theLaw Ministry had said "it appears that the circumstances that led to thedeferring of the delimitation exercise" in Assam, Manipur, ArunachalPradesh and Nagaland "have ceased to exist and that the delimitation ofthe constituencies as envisaged under the Delimitation Act, 2002 could becarried out now".

It said now the President, satisfied that the circumstancesthat led to the deferring of the delimitation exercise have ceased to exist,"is pleased to rescind the notification … dated the February 82008…"

A Delimitation Commission was set up under the DelimitationAct, 2002 to readjust the division of each state and union territory intoterritorial constituencies for the purpose of Lok Sabha and state assemblyelections on the basis of census figures of 2001.

The Commission completed the delimitation exercise and theDelimitation Order, 2008 in respect of all the states, except in these fournortheastern states.

The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power body.Such a body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission.

"In India, such Delimitation Commissions have beenconstituted four times -– in 1952 under the Delimitation Commission Act, 1952,in 1963 under Delimitation Commission Act, 1962, in 1973 under DelimitationAct, 1972 and in 2002 under Delimitation Act, 2002," according to the ECwebsite.

The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power bodywhose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before anycourt.