Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 12: The Movement for Justice for PoJK Refugees of 1947 has requested the Delimitation Commission for defeeezing of seats kept vacant for PoJK refugees and conveyed that deduction of 24 seats from total J&K Assembly seats is against the spirit of Section 14(3) and 14(4) of the J K Reorganisation Act, 2019.
In a press statement, a spokesman of the organisation said that the Section 14(3) says that “The total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to be filled by persons chosen by direct election shall be 107,” meaning thereby that the total elected membership will be of 107 persons. The Section 14(4) says that “Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3), untill the area of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir under the occupation of Pakistan ceases to be so occupied and the people residing in that area elect their representative- (a) twenty four seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall remain vacant and shall not be taken into account for reckoning the total membership of the Assembly and (b) the said area and seats shall be excluded in delimiting the territorial constituencies as provided under PART- V of this Act,” meaning thereby that 24 seats of PoK will remain vacant untill the said area is occupied but it has categorically specified that these 24 seats will not be taken into account while calculating the total membership of the Assembly i.e 107. In other words the 24 vacant seats are not to be counted for counting total seats and their 24 seats will be are over and above 107.
It clearly reflects that till date 24 seats were illegally freezed by wrong interpretation and miscalculation for unknown reasons. It is not understood despite clear cut intention of legislation to have total number of assembly seats to be 107 with 24 more on occupying PoK, why total of 107 were not being considered. Had the provision been interpreted in unbiased and right prospective, the Jammu province would have got 24 more assembly seats as displaced families of 1947 from POJK are settled in Jammu only and the 83 are settled area based already demarcated seats. The interpretation of provision of Section 14(3) and 14(4) makes it ample clear that same number i.e 24 seats for population residing in PoK and population migrated in 1947 has been ascertained.
90 seats by delimiting area of 83 seats and 24 seats for PoJK 1947 DPs becomes total membership of Assembly of UT of J&K with 24 vacant seats to be added or taken into account when the area under PoK ceases to be so occupied is the correct interpretation and the Delimitation Commission should act accordingly for justice PoJK DPs who have been ignored for more than 75 years. This has been communicated to the Delimitation Commission by written communication as well as personnel audience, the MJR-47 spokesman Suchwant Singh maintained.
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