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| NC's stand on delimitation is flawed | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, June 14: The Kashmir-based National Conference (NC) has opposed the idea of delimiting assembly constituencies de novo, saying the Union Government has no power to undertake such an exercise as the Jammu & Kashmir Constitution was amended to ban delimitation at least 2031.
"Such an exercise can be undertaken only after the elections are held, state assembly and a duly elected governments are in place and the necessary amendment is made in Section 47 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir and Section 3 Jammu and Kashmir Representation of Peoples Act 1957, pre-poning the delimitation. Any effort of delimitation would be a misadventure and offend the Constitution and the Representation of the Peoples Act," the NC has said.
Interestingly, the NC has contradicted its own formulation on delimitation and said that the Indian Parliament exercises all the powers of the state legislature when the state is under the President's Rule. "The Governor does not have the power to amend the Constitution. In terms of Article 356 that has come into play after the imposition of Presidents' rule, the legislative power can be exercised by the Parliament, if so declared by the president. In terms of Article 357 the Parliament can confer on the president power of the state legislature to 'make laws'. The power, therefore, is to remain restricted in both cases i.e the Parliament and the President to 'make laws'. Neither the Parliament nor the President has the power to amend the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir in the exercise of powers under Article 356 and 357. The Constitution and legal position as on date, therefore, would not permit delimitation," the NC has said.
The NC's whole approach is flawed. The Indian Parliament is the supreme law-making body. Jammu and Kashmir is under the President's Rule. The Union Government can, if it so likes, amend the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution. Did not the Governor's administration separate Ladakh from the Kashmir division and grant it divisional and revenue status. The point is that even the Supreme Court of India had only recently ruled that "Jammu and Kashmir is subservient to the Indian Constitution and Jammu and Kashmir is not a sovereign state". The Supreme Court had given this ruling while overruling the ruling of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court to the effect that Jammu and Kashmir was a sovereign Constitution and Parliament couldn't tinker with it in any form whatsoever.
It was in 2002 that the Farooq Abdullah Government amended the Constitution banning till at least 2031 increase in the number of assembly seats but the delimitation of the assembly constituencies also. This was the negation of the 2002 amendment in the Indian Constitution and the Representation of the People's Act, 1951. The 2002 amendment had only banned increase in the number of assembly and Lok Sabha seats, but the Farooq Abdullah Government banned both to hurt Jammu and Ladakh. The most notable aspect of the whole situation was that all the 8 BJP MLAs had voted for that undemocratic and anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh amendment. |
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