The Supreme Court on Friday, July 25, rejected a petition seeking directions to the Union government to conduct delimitation exercise for the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The petition was filed by one K Purushottam Reddy who sought directions to the Union to operationalise Section 26 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said that the two States cannot be treated at par with Jammu and Kashmir where delimitation was undertaken in 2022 and the number of assembly seats were increased.
According to reports, the court refused to direct delimitation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, observing that Article 170 of the Constitution allows delimitation only after the first census conducted post-2026.
“We have held that this will open floodgates for all states to approach seeking parity. We hold that constitutional mandate under 170(3) serves as a bar. Demand for the Delimitation is contrary to the same and thus fails. J&K having been reconstituted, is not governed by chapter 3 of part VII of the Constitution. Thus we find no merit that exclusion of AP and Telangana from the impugned delimitation notification is arbitrary or violative of the constitution,” the Court said according to Bar and Bench.
According to Live Law, Justice Surya Kanth said that Constitutional distinctions exist between UTs and states. “J&K, having been reconstituted as UT, is not governed by the provisions of Chapter 3 of Part 7 of Constitution. UTs are regulated by parliamentary legislation. There is no merit in contention that exclusion of AP and Telangana is discriminatory or arbitrary,” he said.
Earlier in March, the Telangana Assembly had passed a resolution urging the Union to increase the number of seats from 119 to 153, pursuant to the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and as per the latest census.