Delimitation bill has provision for EC to conduct exercise in Pak-occupied J&K

NEW DELHI: The Delimitation Bill, 2026, in provision that aligns with New Delhi’s consistent position that Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) is an integral part of India, incorporates a futuristic provision authorising the Election Commission to conduct delimitation of J&K constituencies that are currently under occupation of Pakistan, whenever they “cease to be so occupied”.While the current elected strength of J&K assembly is 90, this does not include the 24 seats in PoJK that remain ‘vacant’ and are not taken into acount for reckoning the total membership of the assembly. The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — one of the three Bills set to be introduced on Thursday, the other two being the Delimitation Bill and the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First) Amendment Bill — authorises the Delimitation Commission to decide on revised strength of the J&K assembly, which shall not be below the current 114 seats. It rolls back the provision in J&K Reorganisation Act for excluding the PoJK area and seats in delimiting the territorial constituencies of J&K. Importantly, the UT Laws Bill proposes to amend Section 15 of the J&K Reorganisation Act to raise the number of women members who may be nominated to J&K assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor, to three from the existing two.However, the number of nominated women MLAs shall be increased to three only after readjustment of the constituencies takes effect, based on fresh delimitation.As per the statement of objects and reasons of the UT Laws Bill, the provisions of the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 are based on the existing constitutional framework relating to population, delimitation and reservation. “Under the revised constitutional scheme, the expression “population”, the allocation of seats and the readjustment of parliamentary and assembly constituencies are proposed to be governed with reference to such census as Parliament may by law determine, and such readjustment is to be undertaken by the delimitation commission. The revised scheme also aligns the operation of reservation of seats for women,” it states while adding that the proposed amendments brings the Acts in conformity with the revised constitutional scheme”.