& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Re-demarcation

HC hears 1 of 3 writ petitions

Staff Correspondent
The High Court (HC) yesterday started hearing one of the three writ petitions regarding the Election Commission's (EC's) redemarcation of parliamentary constituencies.
An HC bend) comprised of Justice Mir Hasmat Ali and Justice Shamim Hasnain later adjourned the heanng until today.
During the hearing yesterday, EC's counsel Mahmudul Islam told the court that as per Article 8(1) of the Constitution, the EC has to delimit parliamentary constituencies before holding each general election, and after each population census in the country.
He also said if the EC fails to do so, it has to explain the reasons behind tins.
Mahmudul Islam, a former attorney general, will continue his
SEE PAGE 15 COL 6 FROM PAGE 16
submissions before the court also
Advocate ABM Nurul Islam, a senior lawyer of the SC who filed this writ petition, told the HC bench yesterday that as per Article 65(2) and 119 of the Constitution, the EC’s main duties are to hold elections to parliament and to the post of president. And then it can go for holding local government elections.
But keeping aside its main duties, the commission has taken steps for other purposes, he said.
The petitioner argued that the EC went for some unnecessary activities including dialogues with political parties. Now, people arc not sure if parliamentary polls will be held on December 18.
He mentioned that he had filed the writ petition with the HC hoping for directives to the EC to exercise its powers to hold the parliamentary elections, and not for challenging any law or rules of the EC.
The EC had invited objections to the re-demarcation of parliamentary constituencies in spite of the rule following his writ petition pending with the HC. And the EC action in this regard was mala fide, he argued.
Advocate Nurul Islam also said delimitation of constituencies could be done on the basis of birth registration of people that the government completed on March 31. This would be fair since the last census of population was done in 2001 when the number of people was only 10 crore.
Earlier on the day. the HC bench reprimanded Dr Shahdeen Malik, another counsel for the EC, for making comments to the media on the pending writ petitions regarding delimitation of constituencies.
On May 12, upon the writ petition of Advocate Nurul Islam, the HC issued a rule asking the government and the EC to explain why the move to redo the demarcation of constituencies should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.
Lawyers said 11 writ petitions regarding the re-demarcation are pending with the HC.