The Kerala High Court on Wednesday quashed the ward delimitation order issued ahead of local body elections by the State Government in eight municipalities and a grama panchayat.
The court quashed the ward delimitation in the Mattannur, Sreekandapuram, Panur, Koduvally, Payyoli, Mukkam, Feroke and Pattambi municipalities and in the Padanna grama panchayat stating that the delimitation that was carried out as per an order issued by the Delimitation Commission was not done as per norms.
This followed a plea before the court by councillors of the Indian Union Muslim League citing that no census had been conducted prior to issuing the order.
Their contention was that a ward delimitation had been done in 2015 based on the 2011 Census. In this situation, a fresh ward delimitation can be done only after conducting a new census – to ascertain the present population, and not on the basis of the earlier one. There were also widespread complaints of ward delimitation in many municipalities and panchayats.
The court observed that conducting a delimitation process using outdated or previously utilised data undermined the validity of the exercise.
The contention of the government and the Delimitation Commission that they have independent and distinct power to vary the seats cannot be accepted, since the government will then have the power to vary the number of seats even without publication of a census.
Published – December 18, 2024 08:59 pm IST
