NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to examine a plea for providing proportional representation to Scheduled Tribes in Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
However, a Bench comprising Justice Altamas Kabir and Justice J Chelameswar declined to pass any orders in this regard for the forthcoming elections in UP.
It asked the poll panel to consider the plea of petitioner Virendra Pratap, a tribal, to provide the benefit by evaluating the necessary seats after taking the relevant data from the Registrar-General of the Census Operations.
Counsel for the EC told the Bench that the petitioner’s request for the present polls could not be considered, as it may require about four months to complete the exercise of reserving seats on the basis of the population.
Earlier, the petitioner alleged that the poll panel had not discharged its constitutional responsibility by providing proportional representation to the STs on the basis of 2003 presidential order for the UP Assembly elections.