ECI Puts On Hold Special Summary Revision In J&K

SRINAGAR: Since re-organisation of Jammu & Kashmir, the Election Commission of India has not undertaken its annual exercise of revision of electoral roll in the newly carved out Union Territory, sources disclosed Friday.

They said that the poll-body will not undertake special summary revision of voters in the UT till delimitation exercise is not completed.

“The ECI doesn't carry out special summary revision of electoral roll in the States and Union Territories where the delimitation exercise is underway or where polls are scheduled,” they said, adding that Special Summary Revision-2020 and SSR-2021 were not carried out in the UT due to the delimitation exercise.

A delimitation commission was set-up by central government on March 05, 2020 to fix boundaries for Assembly and Parliamentary segments of the UT.

The panel headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd.) Ranjana Desai and comprising Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and J&K's State Election

Commissioner Kewal Kumar Sharma was given one-year extension earlier this week.

The panel is empowered to fix boundaries for 90 Assembly seats and five parliamentary segments of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory. It has also been tasked to reserve seats for schedule castes and schedule tribes in the Assembly.

Going by the laws and parameters governing reservation for SCs and STs, 18 seats are likely to be reserved in the UT Assembly.

It is worthwhile to mention that Assembly of the erstwhile state of J&K had 87 seats, of which four seats were Ladakh. Ladakh is no more part of Jammu & Kashmir from October 31, 2019 when it started functioning as a separate Union Territory—(KNO)