The Legislative Assembly
11. Strength of Legislative Assembly.-
(1) The total number of seats to be filled by persons chosen by direct election in the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland shall be 60: Provided that for the period referred to in clause (2) of article 371A, the total number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Nagaiand shall be 1[52], of which-
(a) 2[twelve seats] shall be allocated to the Tuensang district and shall be filled by persons chosen by the members of the regional council from amongst themselves in such manner as the Governor, after consulting that council, may by notification in the Official Gazette specify, and
(b) the remaining forty seats shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from assembly constituencies in the rest of the State of Nagaland.
(2) In the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950),-
(a) in section 7, the following proviso shall be inserted at the end, namely:-
"Provided that for the period referred to in clause (2) of article 371A, the total number of seats allotted to the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland shall be 46, of which-
(a) six seats shall be allocated to the Tuensang district and shall be filled by persons chosen by the members of the regional council referred to in that article from amongst themselves in such manner as the Governor, after consulting that council, may by notification in the Official Gazette specify, and
(b) the remaining forty seats shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from assembly constituencies in the rest of the State of Nagaland.";
(b) in the Second Schedule, after entry 14, the following entry shall be inserted, namely:-
15. Nagaland.......60 [for the period referred to in clause (2) of articles 371A, 46].".
(3) In the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951), in section 5, in clause (c), the following proviso shall be inserted at the end, namely:-
"Provided that for the period referred to in clause (2) of article 371A, a person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill any seat allocated to the Tuensang district in the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland unless he is a member of the regional council referred to in that article.".
(4) The Election Commission shall delimit the assembly constituencies in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution on the basis of the latest census figures, and in doing so the Commission shall have regard to the following provisions, namely:-
(a) all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, consist of geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, regard shall be had to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication, public convenience and linguistic affinities of the people,
(b) all constituencies shall be single-member constituencies, and
(c) the population of each constituency shall not, as far as practicable, be more than six thousand.
(5) For the purpose of assisting the Election Commission in the performance of its functions under this section, the Commission shall associate with itself five persons of whom three shall be elected by the members of the Interim Body established under section 3 of the Nagaland (Transitional Provisions) Regulation, 1961 (Regulation 2 of 1961), from among themselves and two shall be nominated by the Central Government:
Provided that none of the said associate members shall have a right to vote or to sign any decision of the Election Commission.
(6) The Election Commission shall-
(a) formulate its proposals in regard to the matters mentioned in sub-section (4) and publish them in the Official Gazette of the State of Assam and in such other manner as the Commission may consider fit, together with a notice inviting objections and suggestions in relation to the proposals and specifying a date on or after which the proposals will be further considered by it;
(b) consider all objections and suggestions which may have been received by it before the date so specified, and for the purpose of such consideration hold one or more public sittings at such place or places as it may think fit;
(c) after considering all objections and suggestions which may have been received by it before the date so specified, determine the matters mentioned in sub-section (4) by one or more final orders and cause such order or orders to be published in the Official Gazette of the State of Assam; and upon such publication the order or orders shall have the full force of law and shall not be called in question in any court;
(d) amend the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 1961, so as to include therein the parliamentary constituency of Nagaland and the assembly constituencies delimited under this section.