SC notice to Centre, panel for delay in re-drawing boundaries

The Centre will have to do a lot of explanation before the Supreme Court which sought its response to a petition seeking to know why Delimitation Commission recommendations, made two years ago, were yet to be implemented.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Raveendran issued notices to the Centre and the delimitation panel in this regard. The PIL filed by an NGO, Delhi Study Group, has sought immediate implementation of the commission8217;s recommendations on re-drawing various parliamentary and Assembly constituencies, so that the coming elections in various states are held in accordance with the re-defined constituencies. Another petition, filed by a BJP leader Kartar Singh Bhadana from Rajasthan, would also be heard along with NGO8217;s petition.

The petitions point out that the notification on re-defining boundaries of constituencies is yet to be placed before the President for her assent before implementation. The commission, after having spent a whopping Rs 20-crore for conducting the exercise, completed its exercise in all states except Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

It has also been pointed out that besides general elections in 2009, 11 states are scheduled to go to polls between December 2007, and November 2008.