HYDERABAD: A draft Cabinet note to undertake amendments in Article 170(3) of the Constitution and Second Schedule of the Representation of People Act was prepared by the Central government for increasing the number of Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, as it was assured in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
“The note was sent for inter-ministerial consultation to Department of Legal Affairs and Legal department of Ministry of Law and Justice. The Ministry of Law and Justice concurred the proposal and suggested to resubmit the draft Cabinet note along with the two draft Bills with complete details relating to reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Second Schedule of the Representation of People Act, 1950,” MoS for Home Affairs Hansraj G Ahir informed TRS MP B Vinod Kumar.
Vinod Kumar had written a letter, seeking delimitation of Assembly seats and bifurcation of High Court, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October, 2017. Replying to the letter, Hansraj wrote a letter to Vinod Kumar recently.
In his letter Hansraj further stated: “After the draft Cabinet note was prepared for the amending the Constitution, the Election Commission was then requested to fill in the columns relating to the reservation of the seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Second Scheduled of the Representation of People Act. The EC intimated that after the perusal of the extent of the Assembly Constituencies, as shown in AP Reorganisation (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2015 some discrepancies were found in the pre-revised and revised extent of some Assembly Constituencies, which were forwarded to AP and Telangana governments for their comments. AP sent its comments, but the comments of Telangana are awaited,” Hansraj said.
Hansraj stated that for the delimitation of Assembly seats in AP from 175 to 225 and in Telangana from 119 to 153, Attorney General opined that unless and until Article 170 of the Constitution is amended to bring up in line with the Section 26 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the increase in number of seats of Legislative Assemblies of AP and Telangana cannot be given effect to.
Meanwhile, on the bifurcation of HC, Hansraj said that establishment of High Court in AP can be done only after CJI in consultation with AP, which decides the place and availability of necessary infrastructure for the High Court.