Won’t participate in J&K Delimitation Commission: NC

LS Speaker had nominated 3 of its MPs, including Farooq Abdullah, to the panel

The National Conference (NC), whose three Members of Parliament (MPs), including Dr. Farooq Abdullah, were nominated as members of the Delimitation Commission by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday, rejected the whole process on Friday.

“This Delimitation Commission is a product of the J&K Re-organisation Act 2019, which NC is challenging both in and outside the Supreme Court. Participating in this Commission will be tantamount to accepting the events of August 5, 2019, which the NC is unwilling to do,” a NC spokesman said in Srinagar.

He said the NC’s three MPs will not participate in the Commission.

“According to the Constitution of J&K, the constituencies of J&K were to be delimited in 2026 with rest of the country. The constituencies in the State were last delimited in ‘90s. Thereafter, an amendment was made in the Constitution of J&K and unanimously passed in the State Assembly, in which all the regional parties, Congress and BJP voted for this amendment to go with the delimitation with rest of the country in 2026. Therefore, the Constitution of the Delimitation Commission is unwarranted,” the spokesman added.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday nominated five members to the Commission, which includes three National Conference MPs — Dr. Abdullah, Justice Hasnain Masoodi and Muhammad Akbar Lone — as associate members. Two BJP MPs — Dr. Jitendra Singh and Jugal Kishore Sharma — have also been nominated as associate members of the panel.

The Commission was constituted under J&K Re-Organisation Act-2019 and Delimitation Commission Act-2002.

According to the J&K Reorganisation Act, seven more Assembly segments will be added to the Assembly of the Union Territory. At present, J&K has 85 Assembly constituencies, with Kashmir having 46 and Jammu 37. Besides, twenty-four seats also remain reserved for Assembly segments of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

Recruitment scheme

Meanhile, Justice Masoodi has described the accelerated recruitment scheme, announced by the J&K administration to fill up 10,000 vacancies, “more a design to fast track implementation of the new domicile regime than provide any relief to thousands of unemployed youth of J&K.”

“The domicile regime comprising of J&K Reorganisation ( Adaptation of State Laws) Order 2020, J&K Civil Service (Decentralisation And Recruitment) 2020 and J&K Grant of Domicile Certificate ( Procedure) Rules 2020, framed under the Act is unconstitutional, as the matter is before the SC, and so are all the consequential steps taken in furtherance of the regime,” said Justice Masoodi.