SC dismisses plea for delimitation exercise in Andhra Pradesh,Telangana

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea for conducting delimitation exercise in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for increasing the assembly seats in both the states.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh rejected the contention of alleged discrimination against the two states, saying provisions dealing with delimitation in states were different when compared to UTs.

It held that the exclusion of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the delimitation notification issued for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir was not arbitrary or discriminatory and hence constitutional.

The top court dismissed the plea filed by K Purushottam Reddy who sought directions to the Centre to operationalise Section 26 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act which deals with delimitation of the assembly constituencies in both the states.

Reddy has contended that delimiting the assembly and parliamentary constituencies of only the newly minted Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, with the exclusion of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, created an unreasonable classification and was, therefore, unconstitutional.

The top court said section 26 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014 was subject to Article 170 of the Constitution and as per which delimitation exercise can be held only after the first census conducted after 2026.

The top court said allowing the plea for fresh delimitation exercise will open the floodgates of litigation from other states seeking conduct of such exercise.