Need more time to implement report of delimitation panel, Govt tells court

NEW DELHI, JAN 7: The Union Government continued to drag its feet on the report of the Delimitation Commission as it sought more time from the Supreme Court to respond to a petition, which had sought its implementation, made two years ago.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam urged the court to grant more time to file a comprehensive affidavit on the issue. He contended that the Secretary, Union Home Ministry was made a respondent in the case while the appropriate and concerned officer has to be the Secretary, Department of Justice under Ministry of Law and Justice. Although the court agreed to his point and allowed the concerned official to be impleaded, the petitioner — Delhi Study Group, an NGO — dubbed it as a yet another delaying tactic.

The NGO had filed a PIL seeking immediate implementation of the Commission’s recommendations on re-drawing various Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in the country, so that the coming elections in various states are held in accordance with the re-defined boundaries of the constituencies. On December 10 last year, the court had asked the Centre to furnish its response on the issue.

Under mounting pressure, the Cabinet in its last meeting reportedly gave an approval to initiate steps for implementation of Commission’s recommendations. Pointing to such media reports, senior advocate Arun Jaitley, appearing for the petitioner, urged the court to ask the Government to come clear on it.

Acceding to his plea, Gopal Subramaniam assured: “We shall take all that into consideration and file a comprehensive affidavit.”

Another petition by a BJP leader, Kartar Singh Bhadana, hailing from Rajasthan, was also listed along with this case. It had been pointed earlier before the Bench how the notification on re-defining boundaries of constituencies is yet to be placed before the President for her assent before it could be implemented.

The Commission, after having spent a whopping Rs 20 crore, had completed its exercise in 25 states barring Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

Besides the general election in 2009, 11 states including Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan are scheduled to go to polls between December 2007 and November 2008. But the Government has chose to be indecisive over the implementation of its recommendations, it pointed out.

The matter will now be taken up on February 4.

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