Delimitation panel formally announced for JK

New Delhi: Setting the ball rolling for restoration of Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the Government of India on Friday constituted first-ever delimitation commission for the Union Territory.
The Union Ministry of Law and Justice Friday appointed Justice (retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai as head of the delimitation commission which is tasked with mandate of drawing boundaries for 90 Assembly segments of J&K and reserving seats for schedule castes and schedule tribes. Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai served as a Judge of Supreme Court of India 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 notification issued by Union Ministry of Law and Justice, the appointment of Justice (retd.) Ranjana shall be for a period of one year or till further orders, whichever is earlier, reads the order. The commission is mandated to undertake delimitation of Assembly and
Parliamentary constituencies in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. The timeframe of delimitation commission clearly indicates that election in Jammu and Kashmir is not possible at least before May-June 2021. As already reported, Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner would be representative of ECI in the delimitation panel. The third member of the panel would be election commissioner of Jammu & Kashmir who will be nominated by the Lieutenant Governor Girish Chandra Murmu under Article 243K of the Constitution of India. Most probably, Chief Electoral Officer of J&K, Shaliendra Kumar would be nominated as election commissioner of J&K . Going by J&K Re-organisation Act, four MPs of Jammu and Kashmir- Farooq Abdullah, Akbar Lone, Justice( retd.) Hasnain Masoodi and Jugal Kishore Sharma-would be appointed as associate members of the panel.
Mandate of the panel: The panel would undertake delimitation in the Union territory in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Act and the provisions of the Delimitation Act, 2002, the order states. According to the Re-organisation law,the commission is mandated to define boundaries of 90 Assembly seats and reserving seats for schedule castes and schedule tribes. This will be the first time when seats are being reserved exclusively for scheduled tribes in Jammu and Kashmir as berths were reserved only for schedule castes in the erstwhile state which partitioned into two Union Territories from October 31. In the erstwhile state of J&K, seven seats were reserved for schedule castes in Jammu province.