- Total MLAs are decided in Section-60 & Delimitation Commission has to only distribute as per Sec- 60-2b
To be brief as regards distribution of the pre decided number of 90 MLAs in the would be Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K Section 60 Section 60 (2b) of The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 No. 34 of 2019 has no direct reference of taking into account population as an ultimate deciding parameter for delimiting individually the single member segments of the Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K and as regards the number of MLAs that has already been laid in the Section-60 of the Act. To be specific Section 60 reads < “60. (1) Without prejudice to sub-section (3) of Section 14 of this Act, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114, and delimitation of the constituencies may be determined by the Election Commission in the manner hereinafter provided-(a) the number of seats to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in the Legislative Assembly, having regard to the relevant provisions of the Constitution; (b) the assembly constituencies into which the Union territory shall be divided, the extent of each of such constituencies and in which of them seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes or for the Scheduled Tribes; and (c) the adjustments in the boundaries and description of the extent of the parliamentary constituencies in each Union territory that may be necessary or expedient. (2) In determining the matters referred to in clauses (b) and (c) of sub-section (1), the Election Commission shall have regard to the following provisions, namely:- (a) all the constituencies shall be single-member constituencies; (b) all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, regard shall be had to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public; and (c) constituencies in which seats are reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes shall, as far as practicable, be located in areas where the proportion of their population to the total population is the largest” .
For taking a feel of the spirits / intentions of elders who drafted the constitution of India attention of all those who are this day engaged in the discussion / debates on Delimitation Exercise going on for the Legislative Assembly of UT of J&K and the Delimitation Commission engaged with the delimitation exercise attention is also drawn to contents of Constitution of India {Art-170 (1) Subject to the provisions of Article 333, the Legislative Assembly of each State shall consist of not more than five hundred, and not less than sixty, members chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the State. (2) For the purposes of clause (1), each State shall be divided into territorial constituencies in such manner that the ratio between the population of each constituency and the *number of seats allotted to it shall, so far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.
Art-170(3) Upon the completion of each census, the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of each State and the division of each State into territorial constituencies shall be readjusted by such authority and in such manner as Parliament may by law determine. * The determining total seats is limited by 42nd Amendment Act of 1976 till census after 2026 but the internal adjustment is not restricted},The Representation of the People Act of 1950 , the Delimitation Commission Act,1952 No. LXXXI of 1952 , Delimitation Act 1972 and the Delimitation Act, 2002 (33 OF 2002) and Act No 03 of 2004.
As regards the Lok Sabha the first task of Delimitation Commission ( as per Art-81 and Art-82 of COI) is to rework on the total seats of MPs on the basis of population of each state /UT and also decide to increase or decrease the number of seats in the Legislative Assemblies of States if felt necessary. Anyhow reworking on the number of seats has been restricted by law ( 42nd Constitution Amendment of 1976 , read with 84th Constitution Amendment Act and Act no 3 of 2004) till the census figures after 2026 AD are known. The other task is relocation of seats for any adjustments as per population of designated census as regards members of Lok Sabha ( MPs) reserved for SC and ST.
But as regards the MLA there is no direct pointed reference of population for individual seats/ single member segments of Legislative Assembly where the designated authority / Delimitation Commission could ofcourse readjust/redraw the boundaries after every census keeping particularly in view, as far as practicable, physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public; geographically compactness, due regard to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public.
And the job in hand with the Justice Ranjana Desai Delimitation Commission as regards the LA of UT of J&K is more of distributing the pre-decided number (90) of seats in LA so as to ensure geographical compact constituencies, and in delimiting them, immediate regard shall be had to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public ( there are no such like immediate binding guiding parameters for locating the individual MP seats of Lok Sabha as are allocated to a State / UT in direct proportion to the population that a State /UT has in comparison to the all India population where as the number of total seats in a State / UT are not decided (in general) on basis of population uniformly for all States/ UTs or we can say that a MP of each State is presently theoretically backed by same population ( presently based on 1971 Census population the value is 708000 per MP of Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha) where as a MLA of UP is backed with different population as compared to J&K or HP i.e if a UP MLA based on 1971 population is backed by 208×1000 and MLA of HP is on an average backed by 51×1000 population and of earlier J&K state was backed by 72×1000 population.
Some may argue in support of treating only population as the factor for distributing seats pleading that in case area was also criteria then MP should have got more MPs/ MLAs than UP. The argument is not valid since number of MPs ( Lok Sabha + Rajya Sabha ) that MP as well as UP has got are in the same proportion as is population ( 1971) but the MLAs in UP are more in number & weightage ( vote value for presidential election) than Madhya Pradesh since the number of MLAs in MP are have not been decides on some all India level uniform norms and are more on local considerations that have been distributed over lesser population and inhabited area (though total area is more).
(Daya Sagar is a Sr Journalist & a known analyst of J&K affairs dayasagr45@yahoo.com).