Kerala HC declares recent delimitation exercise invalid for certain local bodies

Kochi, Dec 18 (PTI) The Kerala High Court has declared the delimitation process conducted for nine local bodies based on the Kerala Municipality (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, and the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, as invalid and inoperative.

Justice Mohammed Nias C P gave the order on a batch of petitions seeking to annul the government's decision to increase the number of wards in eight municipalities and one gram panchayat in the state, and to invalidate the guidelines relying on outdated population data, as these actions affect the structure and functioning of their local bodies.

The court noted that the present local bodies were constituted in 2015 based on the 2011 census.

The right of the government to alter the total number of seats is provided under Section 6(2) of the respective Acts, where variations or alterations are allowed only when based on seat numbers already existing.

Therefore, any such changes must be supported by relevant population data, the court said. The increase in the number of seats by amending Section 6(3) indeed changed the ward boundaries, it said.

"In that view of the matter, the amendment made to Section 6(3) of the Act by increasing the number of seats cannot be made applicable to those Panchayats/Municipalities regarding which a delimitation exercise was carried out in 2015 based on the 2011 Census by the Government by invoking the power under Section 4 read with Section 6(1) of the Acts," the court said.

The court then declared "illegal" the delimitation exercise carried out in Padne Grama Panchayat and municipalities including Panoor, Mukkom, Koduvally, Payyoli, Sreekandapuram, Feroke, Pattambi and Mattannur. PTI TGB HMP ROH