New Delhi, July 25 -- The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a delimitation exercise in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to increase the number of seats in their State Assemblies.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi found no merit in the petition filed by Purushottam Reddy, who had argued that conducting delimitation in Jammu and Kashmir while excluding Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was arbitrary and unconstitutional.

In its verdict pronounced today, the Court referred to Article 170 of the Constitution, which lays down the rules for the composition of State Legislative Assemblies and clarified that there is no requirement to readjust the number of seats until the first census figures after 2026 are...