The Supreme Court on Monday declined to stay the delimitation exercise being undertaken by the Election Commission of India in Assam and proposed to be carried out in other northeastern states, but sought a response from the Centre and the poll panel on a joint petition filed by 10 Opposition parties challenging the move as being unconstitutional and arbitrary.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, told senior advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for the Opposition parties that the EC had issued the February 23 notification regarding the delimitation exercise under a statutory provision which was in vogue for the past 15 years and as such there was no urgency to stay the same without hearing the EC and the Centre on the issue.

“One thing we cannot ignore is that this provision came in 2008. That was about 15 years ago. We’ll hear challenge to that of course…,” the bench, which also included Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, observed.

The petitioners have challenged Section 8A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and according to them, the said proviso is arbitrary and opaque apart from being discriminatory to the state of Assam and the northeastern states.

It was pointed out that delimitation for the rest of the country has been conducted by a high-powered body headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and the same commission was formed for Jammu and Kashmir as well.