Shillong, July 4: The High Court of Meghalaya on Thursday disposed of the writ petition which had question the “illegal action” of the KHADC to constitute the Delimitation Committee to determine the boundaries of the 29 constituencies under its jurisdiction.
Justice HS Thangkhiew in its order said that the writ petition stands disposed after senior counsel, K Paul representing the petitioner, Dominic Warjri submits before the court that the petitioner does not wish to pursue the matter any longer.
When contacted, Warjri who is also a lawyer himself said that there is no specific reason for withdrawing his petition.
“I took a decision not to pursue the matter further,” he added
It may be recalled that the petitioner in his petition which he had filed in December last year had stated that the delimitation exercise is being carried out by the EC without following the mandatory procedures as postulated in the Constitution of India and the instructions given by the Department of District Council Affairs (DCA) through a letter issued on October 28, 2013.
The KHADC’s Deputy Chief Executive Member, PN Syiem had said that the committee was established after the council received more than 15 petitions from villages asking it to move their villages to other constituencies.
In response to a question regarding the criteria for reorganising different communities, Syiem said the committee would ultimately determine the criteria to be based on the population and topography of such settlements.
The KHADC had submitted to the DCA Department a proposal for the delimitation of the council’s constituencies.
KHADC Deputy CEM had said the goal was to rationalise the number of voters and that the suggestion was for the adjustment of Mawlai and other large constituencies, but the number of constituencies will stay the same.
The delimitation committee which was constituted by the KHADC is likely to submit its report by the end of this month.
