Supreme Court frowns on Centre for not filing affidavit in J&K delimitation case

The Supreme Court has expressed disapproval of the Centre not filing its affidavit in a case challenging the delimitation exercise undertaken in Jammu and Kashmir. SC had on May 13 asked the Centre and other respondents to file responses to the petition but had not received the affidavit even on August 30, when the case was taken up.

A bench of justice Sanjay Kishan Kaulsaid that it was refraining from imposing cost on the Centre only because the young counsel appearing for the Centre has assured it that the affidavit would be filed in a week.

The bench made it clear that if the counter is not filed in a week, a penalty of Rs 25,000 would be imposed on the Centre. The petitioner has contended that the delimitation notification, which directed the process of delimitation to be carried out in Jammu and Kashmir to be done on the basis of 2011 population census was unconstitutional as no population census operation was carried out in 2011 for J&K.