Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 1, 2022 at 21:04 IST
The Supreme Court reprimanded the Union Government on Tuesday for failing to file the counter affidavit despite being given six weeks to do so in a case challenging the delimitation exercise carried out in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the notifications of 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The Union Government, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, and the Election Commission were requested by the Supreme Court to file their responses on May 13, 2022, when it issued notice in the suit.
A bench made up of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka stated that the junior lawyer representing the union government had informed them that the rebuttal affidavit would be filed within a week, hence they were not imposing costs.
However, it was made quite clear that if the counter-affidavit is not submitted by the deadline, a sum of Rs. 25,000 must be deposited with the apex court registry in order to register it.
Senior attorney Ravi Shankar Jandhyala, the petitioner’s counsel, informed the bench on Tuesday that although the union government was required to file its counter affidavit within six weeks of the date of the last hearing, they have not yet done so.
He stated that elections are still being held in the interim using the delimitation that is being contested.
In accordance with its authority under Section 3 of the Delimitation Act of 2002, the Union government, Ministry of Law and Justice, issued a notification on March 6, 2020, for the delimitation of assembly and parliamentary constituencies in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland, as well as the UT of J&K.
By notice dated March 3, 2021, the delimitation commission was given an additional year’s extension and the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Nagaland were excluded from the scope of the aforementioned notification.
By means of another announcement, the delimitation commission’s term was further extended on February 21, 2012, past the date of March 6, 2012, by an additional two months.
The matter will further taken up on 29th September, 2022.