Groups from northeast states demand delimitation, to protest Centre’s inaction on August 12

The DDC-NE even filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, after which the apex court sent notices to the EC, MHA, and Ministry of Law and Justice

Groups from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland on Tuesday said that they will protest on August 12 against the Centre’s inaction about a long-overdue delimitation exercise. The Delimitation Demand Committee for the NE States (DDC-NE), as well as the North East Students’ Forum on Delimitation (NESFOD) made fresh demands of delimitation in these states, which has not happened since 1973.

The DDC-NE even filed a public interest litigation suit in the Supreme Court, after which the apex court sent notices to the Election Commission, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Law and Justice on July 25.

In their petition, the DDC-NE had stated that selectively denying delimitation to these four northeastern states, while being conducted in the rest of India, was in violation of the fundamental right under Article 14 of the Constitution.

A Presidential order from February 28, 2020, had asked for a delimitation exercise in these four states; subsequently, in a notification issued on March 6, 2020, the Centre constituted a Delimitation Commission for the purpose of 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 Centre appointed retired Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai as the chairperson, but the exercise was restricted only to Jammu and Kashmir.

The DDC-NE said it had submitted a memorandum in 2021 and 2022 to the prime minister for the implementation of the Delimitation Act, 2002, in these four states but did not receive any response.

A Worso Zimik, an advocate of Delhi High Court who headed the DDC-NE’s legal cell, said that ideally the Desai Commission should have been limited to Jammu and Kashmir. “Because Section 8A of Representation of People’s Act states that the Election Commission should carry out the delimitation,” Zimik said.