Former SC Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai To Head Three-Member Delimitation Panel For J&K, Four Northeastern States

Former Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai will head the three-member delimitation panel for the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, reports Indian Express.

Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats to represent changes in population and is done on the basis of the last Census.

An official order issued on Friday evening by the Union Law and Justice Department said that the Centre has formed the commission for the delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the four north-eastern states and the UT of J&K.

Earlier on 17 February, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arona has nominated Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as his representative on the commission after the Home Ministry approached him, reports Tribune India.

The third member of the panel will reportedly be the election commissioner of the concerned state or the union territory.

Home Minister Amit Shah, while announcing the reorganisation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh, had said delimitation of Assembly constituencies of the erstwhile state would be carried out on the basis of the 2011 Census.

Assembly elections for J&K will be carried out only after the panel submits its recommendations.