Justice (retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai appointed to head Delimitation Commission set up for J&K, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland

The Central Government has set up a Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and the Parliamentary constituencies Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Assam , Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland.

The Commission will be headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd.) Ranjana Prakash Desai and will have Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra as its ex-officio member.

Originally from the Bombay High Court, Justice (retd.) Desai served as a Supreme Court Judge between September 2011 and October 2014.

Jammu and Kashmir was made a Union Territory in August last year, following the Central Government's move to abrogate Article 370 of the Constitution, which had earlier accorded special autonomy to the erstwhile state in certain respects.

Pleas filed challenging the Constitutionality of the abrogation of Article 370 are pending before the Supreme Court. Earlier this week, a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court decided that there was no need to refer these pleas to a larger Bench of the Court.

The same Bench will be hearing the case on merits, although the next hearing the matter is yet to be notified.