Srinagar: Asserting that a freeze on delimitation has been applied to the entire country, including Jammu and Kashmir, until 2026, National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said till the time the freeze ends in the entire country, his party will oppose, tooth and nail, any attempt to make changes without a mandate from the people of the state.
Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of J&K, was reacting to reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and new Union Home Minister Amit Shah is considering fresh delimitation of constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
Hitting out at the BJP over the issue, he said it’s rather surprising that the saffron party, which talks about bringing J&K at par with other states by removing Article 370 and Article 35-A now wants to treat the state differently from other states in this one respect.
Taking to micro-blogging site twitter, the NC Vice President said the freeze on delimitation was applied to J&K and was done to bring the state in line with the rest of the country. “The same was challenged and upheld in both the High Court of J&K & the Supreme Court,” he said.
Mr Abdullah said a freeze on delimitation has been applied to the entire country until 2026 and contrary to the way some ill informed TV channels are trying to sell it as it just a J&K specific freeze.
“When delimitation takes place in the rest of the country the BJP is welcome to apply it to J&K until then we in the @JKNC_ will oppose, tooth & nail, any attempt to make changes without a mandate from the people of the state,” Mr Abdullah twitted.
“A note regarding the legal position as it applies to the freeze on delimitation as it applies to J&K. It’s important to note that this freeze was only brought to bring the state at par with the rest of the country. This is made clear by the note below. I hope some of the TV channels & experts appraise themselves of these facts,” Mr Abdullah wrote on his Facebook page.
“Article 82 and Article 170 of the Constitution of India were amended by the *Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act 2001 to freeze the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies respectively, throughout India, until the _first census is taken after the year 2026,” he said.
Thereafter, he said in order to synchronize the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K with this amendment to the Constitution of India, the J&K State Legislature also amended Section 47(3) of the Constitution of J&K through the Constitution of J&K (Twenty-ninth Amendment) Act 2002 and provided that the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K shall also be frozen until the first census is taken after the year 2026,” he said.
He said this exercise by the J&K State Legislature was aimed at synchronizing the delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K with the rest of the country.
“Mr Bhim Singh challenged this freeze on the ground that it is discriminatory against Jammu. The Division Bench of J&K High Court rejected Mr Singh’s challenge by a reasoned judgement. Thereafter, Mr Singh appealed the Supreme Court. Finally, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court of India also dismissed Mr Singh’s challenge to this amendment to the J&K Constitution by a reason judgement. The Supreme Court decision is titled National Panthers Party v Union of India at (2011) 1 SCC 228,” he wrote on the Facebook page.
“It appears that any de novo delimitation of Assembly constituencies in J&K now in 2019 would be a deviation from the delimitation freeze applicable all over the country under the Constitution of India,” he added.
