JAMMU, Mar 5: With the Central Government extending term of the Delimitation Commission set up for Jammu and Kashmir for one more year, Assembly elections for first Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory are unlikely to be held for another one and a half year in view of follow up procedure after the Panel submits its report to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
The Ministry last night issued an order substituting words “two years’’ as against “one year’’ as term of the Delimitation Commission for Jammu and Kashmir. The Panel’s one-year term was due to expire tomorrow.
The Commission is headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India and comprised Sushil Chandra, Election Commissioner and KK Sharma, State Election Commissioner (J&K). Besides, it has five Associate Members, all of whom are Lok Sabha members from the Union Territory including Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Jugal Kishore Sharma, both from BJP, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone and Hasnain Masoodi, all three from National Conference which has so far dissociated itself from the Panel on the ground that the party has challenged Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act in the Supreme Court under which the Commission has been set up.
Excelsior had last week exclusively reported that the Delimitation Commission’s term is being extended as it was yet to complete majority of work pertaining to delimitation of Assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
