Represented by senior advocate Ravi Shankar Jandhyala and advocates Sriram Parakkat and M.S. Vishnu Shankar, the petition was limited to a challenge of the notification issued by the Union government in March 2020 establishing the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission and a second one in March 2021 extending its term for the purpose of conducting delimitation only for Jammu and Kashmir. “Once the Delimitation Commission was established, there is nothing wrong if the Central government extended the period of appointment of the Chairperson till the task of delimitation/readjustment was completed,” Justice Oka concluded.

Justice Oka had said the notifications drew their power specifically from Section 62(2) of the 2019 Act. Section 62(2) provided for the readjustment of constituencies to be carried out by the Delimitation Commission.

The court questioned why the petitioners, without challenging the source of the government’s notifications — that is Section 62(2), had confined their challenge solely to the notifications.