SC to hear delimitation row on Tamil Nadu Legislative Council

New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) The Supreme Court today decidedto hear the constitutional validity of the Presidentialnotification for delimitation of Legislative Councilconstituencies in Tamil Nadu and asked the Centre, the stategovernment and the Election Commission to file theirresponses.

A bench of Justices J M Panchal and H L Gokhale alsomade it clear that any step taken by the state government onthe delimitation would be subject to the final outcome of thepetition.

"It is clarified that any step taken by the governmentshall be subject to the final outcome of the petition," thecourt said.

The court passed the order on petitions filed byBhartiya Janta Party and one M Bharathiar, challenging theMadras High Court order which had refused to interfere in thenotification saying it was legal and valid.

Challenging the High Court''s order, BJP pleaded thatthe Presidential order was unconstitutional, null and voidand it was in contravention of the Representation of thePeoples'' (RP) Act.

"The Delimitation Order contravened the Representationof the Peoples'' (RP) Act. The same was ineffective as it hadbeen issued without prior approval of Parliament," senioradvocate Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, said.

The Madras High Court had held that the Presidentialorder had been made under Section 3(3)of the Tamil NaduLegislative Council(TNLC) Act which did not provide forplacing the order before Parliament.

The Presidential notification was issued on September30 last for the proposed Legislative Council elections. PTIAAC RB AAC