Centre sets up Delimitation Commission for Jammu & Kashmir, four Northeast states

The Centre on Friday constituted a delimitation commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and several northeastern states. The Union Ministry of Law and Justice has appointed Justice (retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai as head of the commission which is tasked with the mandate of drawing constituency boundaries in accordance with the provision of the Delimitation Act, 2002.

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Commission members

In a Gazette notification, the Centre said the delimitation process will be done in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur. The Commission will also include two other ex officio members — Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and state/UT election commissioner of the concerned states/UT.

Justice Desai served as a Supreme Court judge from September 13, 2011, to October 29, 2014. After attaining superannuation, she was appointed as chairperson of Appellate Tribunal for Electricity in December 2014. According to the notification, the appointment of Justice Ranjana shall be for a period of one year or till further orders, whichever is earlier.

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What is delimitation?

According to the Election Commission, delimitation literally means the act or process of fixing limits or boundaries of territorial constituencies in a country or a province having a legislative body. The job of delimitation is assigned to a high power body. Such a body is known as Delimitation Commission or a Boundary Commission.

The Delimitation Commission in India is a high power body whose orders have the force of law and cannot be called in question before any court. These orders come into force on a date to be specified by the President of India in this behalf. The copies of its orders are laid before the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assembly concerned, but no modifications are permissible therein by them.

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