Supreme Court rejects plea to increase Assembly seats in Telangana, Andhra

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to issue a direction to the Centre to increase the number of Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh was dealing with pleas seeking implementation of the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, which provided for delimitation of Assembly seats in the two successor states.

In its judgment, the Justice Kant-led Bench refused to direct delimitation in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, observing that



Article 170 of the Constitution allows delimitation only after the first census conducted post-2026.

Delimitation under Article 170 has been frozen until the first census after 2026, as per the 84th and 87th Constitutional Amendments.

The apex court rejected the contention that the Centre’s decision to carry out delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir, raising the number of Assembly constituencies from 83 to 90 based on the 2011 census, while excluding Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, was arbitrary and discriminatory.