New Delhi (ILNS): The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition challenging the promulgation of the Presidential Order on February 28, through which an earlier notification deferring the process of delimitation for the state of Assam has been rescinded with a further decision that the process of delimitation of the assembly and parliamentary constituencies for the State of Assam be resumed, today directed all parties to file replies in two weeks.
A bench of Chief Justice S. A. Bobde and Justices A. S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian said that the matter would be heard after the replies.
When Senior Adv Raju Ramachandran said that this was a matter of urgency and that notice was issued in May, Nagaland counsel KN Balagopal said that the state will file a reply in two weeks.
The CJI said: “If you don’t file (in two weeks), we will decide without hearing you.
The petitioners have submitted that the decision to conduct the pending process of delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies is not only an arbitrary and hasty decision, but stands contrary to the very idea behind conducting delimitation inasmuch as the present delimitation exercise is sought to be conducted on the basis of Census 2001, while Census 2011 has already been conducted and Census 2021 is underway. This was apart from it also being unjustified with regard to the conclusion of the NRC preparation for the State of Assam, one of the reasons why the same was deferred in 2008.
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