Srinagar: The Supreme Court of India on Monday dismissed the petition challenging the delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Jammu & Kashmir and stated that it (SC) hasn't ruled upon the validity of the abrogation of Article 370 yet.
The plea was filed by two Kashmir residents — Abdul Gani Khan and Muhammad Ayub Matto and argued that it was ultra vires Articles 81, 82, 170, 330, and 332 of the Indian Constitution and Section 63 of the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
The bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka said that it has not ruled upon the validity of the Jammu & Kashmir Re-organisation Act, 2019, (abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution) which is pending before the Supreme Court among the batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
The BJP-led government of India scrapped the autonomous status of J&K (abrogation of Article 370) in August 2019 and divided the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
It was followed by a Delimitation Commission exercise.
The delimitation changed the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir. It added six new assembly seats to Jammu against one seat—Trehgam—to Kashmir. Jammu’s seat share also surged to 43 from the existing 37, while Kashmir has now 47 seats despite Kashmir valley being the largest than Jammu in the case of the population as well as in the area.