Supreme Court admits writ petition to increase Assembly seats in Telangana, AP

Supreme Court ordered notices to Central government and Election Commission of India, besides the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court has admitted a writ petition filed by Professor K Purushotham Reddy, seeking a direction to the Central government to implement the provision in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (APRA) 2014 to increase the number of Assembly seats in Telangana from 119 to 153 and in Andhra Pradesh from 175 to 225.

It ordered notices to Central government and Election Commission of India, bNewesides the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, according to Marri Shashidhar Reddy, former Vice-Chairman, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

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It was also ordered that the writ petition may be tagged with the writ petition (C) 237/2022, which has challenged the delimitation process in Jammu and Kashmir, earlier this year (Haji Abdul Gani Khan Vs union of India). This matter is posted on September 29, 2022.

Purushotham Reddy, a former head of the Department of Political Science in Osmania University, filed the writ after the Central government went ahead to notify, on May 5, 2022, the order of the Delimitation Commission set up in 2020 to increase the number of assembly seats in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir from 83 to 90, as provided for in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

In the past, the Central government has cited that the provision in Section 26 of the APRA to increase seats in the Telugu States, was subject to the provisions of Article 170 of the Constitution to take up readjustment of seats only after the first census after 2031.