SC rejects plea to increase Assembly seats in Andhra, Telangana

The Supreme Court declined to direct the Centre to increase Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, citing constitutional limitations under Article 170. It upheld that delimitation can only occur post-2026 census, rejecting claims of discrimination over Jammu and Kashmir’s case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to issue a direction to the Centre to increase the number of Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was dealing with pleas seeking implementation of the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which provided for delimitation of Assembly seats in the two successor States.

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In its judgment, the Justice Kant-led Bench refused to direct delimitation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, observing that Article 170 of the Constitution allows delimitation only after the first census conducted post-2026.

Delimitation under Article 170 has been frozen until the first census after 2026, as per the 84th and 87th Constitutional Amendments. The apex court rejected the contention that the Centre’s decision to carry out delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir, raising the number of Assembly constituencies from 83 to 90 based on the 2011 census, while excluding Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, was arbitrary and discriminatory.

Highlighting the constitutional distinctions, it opined that J&K, having been reconstituted as a Union Territory, is regulated by parliamentary legislation and provisions of the Constitution under Chapter III of Part VI will not apply.

In a related development, the Telangana Assembly, in a resolution passed in March this year, urged the Centre to increase the number of seats from 119 to 153, pursuant to the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 and as per the latest census. The State Assembly urged the Union government to introduce necessary Constitutional amendments for this purpose in order to strengthen representative democracy.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy pointed out that the Centre, in reply to his question when he was a member of the previous Lok Sabha, had stated that the delimitation of Assembly constituencies would be done only after the 2026 census.

Reddy slammed the Centre for its double standards on the issue. He said the Centre increased the number of Assembly constituencies from 83 to 90 as per the 2011 census in Jammu and Kashmir, and, in Sikkim, a resolution was passed in the Cabinet in 2018, and the process of delimitation of constituencies is currently underway.