Delimitation Commission proposals finalized

Context:

• The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission has released its draft report and sought objections and suggestions from the public and residents of the union territory after which it will be considered by the panel in open sittings that will commence afterwards.

Delimitation

• Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time.
• The exercise is carried out by a commission whose orders have the force of law and cannot be questioned before any court.
• The objective is to redraw boundaries based on census data so the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the state.
• Delimitation is a key step in the move to hold elections in the union territory, which could then be followed by restoration of statehood.
• After Kashmir's special status was scrapped in 2019, delimitation will be as per the provisions of the Indian constitution.

• The delimitation commission was constituted in March 2020 and recently was given two months of extension to complete the exercise of redrawing Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir. The panel was given a 12-month extension last year.
• Headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, it has chief election commissioner Sushil Chandra and the state election commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir, KK Sharma, as its ex-officio members.

Seven new constituencies proposed

• The proposal, published in the Gazette of India and the Gazette of Jammu and Kashmir, outlines six new constituencies in Jammu and one in the Kashmir Valley.
• It also proposes the carving out of seven scheduled caste and nine scheduled tribe constituencies in the region.
• If the proposal is cleared, the total number of Assembly constituencies will rise from 83 to 90, with 43 in the Jammu region and 47 in Kashmir; 24 seats will be kept aside (and vacant) for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
• Currently Jammu has 37 members and Kashmir has 46.
• The number of Lok Sabha seats have been kept five and no seat has been reserved for scheduled castes or tribes.