STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The Supreme Court of India will consider the multiple writ petitions filed by different parties challenging the draft published by ECI regarding the delimitation of the constituencies together on July 24 since both petitions deal with the same topic.
Previously, the court had decided to consider the petition filed by the ten political leaders on July 24 and the one filed by Hiren Gohain and others on July 25. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal will be representing both petitioners in the apex Court. Hiren Gohain and other prominent people filed the first petition. 10 petitioners, belonging to various opposition parties in Assam had petitioned the Supreme Court of India, challenging the recent proposals of the Election Commission of India readjusting the extent of 126 Assembly and 14 Lok Sabha Constituencies in Assam by its recent draft order issued on June 20, in the second writ petition. The list of petitioners includes Lurinjyoti Gogoi (Assam Jatiya Parishad), Debabrata Saikia (INC), Rokibul Hussain (INC), Akhil Gogoi (Raijor Dal), Manoranjan Talukdar (CPI (M)), Ghanakanta Chutia (Trinamool Congress), Munin Mahanta (CPI), Diganta Konwar (Anchalik Gana Morcha), Mahendra Bhuyan (Nationalist Congress Party), and Swarna Hazarika (Rashtriya Janata Dal). This petition has been filed through the Advocate on Record, Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi.
Head of the opposition parties in the Assam Legislative Assemblies, Debabrata Saikia, mentioned, "The petition challenges the methodology adopted by the ECI by taking different Average Assembly sizes for different districts and argues that population density or populousness has no role to play in the process of delimitation. The petition further states that while the Constitution of India envisages an exercise whereby constituencies are to be readjusted so as to ensure that all constituencies are comprised of an almost equal population, by relying on 2001 census figures, the Election Commission has created three categories of districts and has taken different yardsticks for the three categories, resulting in a possible deviation of up to 33% between the population of the largest and smallest constituency."
He further added, "The petition also challenged Section 8A of the Representation of People Act, 1950, as per which the Election Commission is purporting to exercise its power. The petitioners challenge the provision on the grounds that it is arbitrary and opaque, apart from being discriminatory to the State of Assam. The petition argues that delimitation for the rest of the country has been conducted by a high-powered body headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge, and the same commission was formed for Jammu and Kashmir as well. However, the provision of Section 8A discriminates against Assam and three North-Eastern States, for which the Election Commission has been prescribed as the authority to conduct delimitation."
The petition has also highlighted certain statements of the Chief Minister of Assam, who has publicly stated that the present exercise will be beneficial to one party while being damaging to other opposition parties. Such statements, the petition submits, while not inspiring any confidence in the exercise, also give rise to apprehensions that the ECI exercise has not been independent and has been heavily dictated by the State Government.
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