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Informist, Friday, Jul. 25, 2025

 

--SC junks plea seeking delimitation exercise in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana 

--CONTEXT:Plea sought delimitation to raise Andhra, Telangana assembly seats 

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking a direction to the Centre to conduct a delimitation exercise to increase the legislative assembly states in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The top court held that Section 26 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, dealing with delimitation, was subject to the Constitutional provision of Article 170(3), according to which delimitation can be held only after the first census conducted after 2026.

 

The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N.K. Singh said Article 170(3) acts as a Constitutional bar in entertaining the plea for delimitation. Article 170(3) deals with the composition of legislative assemblies in states. To allow such a prayer to increase assembly seats will open the "floodgates" of litigation by other states, said the bench.

 

The court rejected petitioner Professor K. Purushottam Reddy's argument that delimitation was conducted for Jammu and Kashmir and assembly seats of the union territory were increased. Reddy had argued that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were left out of the delimitation and that the same was arbitrary. The top court held that the exclusion of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the delimitation notification issued for Jammu and Kashmir was not arbitrary or discriminatory. "Jammu and Kashmir having been reconstituted is not governed by chapter 3 of part 7 of the Constitution," said the court.  

 

Additional Solicitor General K.M. Nataraj, appearing for the Centre, had argued that the delimitation process could be undertaken only after the 2026 census was concluded and that delimitation was a humongous exercise and couldn't be undertaken overnight. The delimitation exercise in Jammu and Kashmir was in the case of union territory and it couldn't be equated with the state, said Nataraj. However, the petitioner argued that Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland were also included in the prior delimitation notification issued by the Centre, but not Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, though the northeastern states were also governed by Article 170(3) of the Constitution.  End 

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

 

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