Monsoon is not good enough reason for postponement: SC
PANAJI
It’s final. The panchayat elections in Goa will be held on August 10 as notified by the State Election Commission (SEC) after the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday refused to entertain a Special Leave Petition filed by the State government seeking that the 45-day deadline be extended to permit conduct of the polls after the monsoon.
The window for ensuring reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) the category left out in the SEC’s notification allocating quotas, is however slightly open, with the State government asking the authority to relook at the reservations after the State OBC Corporation submitted its report on population data on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court declined to entertain the Goa government’s plea saying monsoons wasn’t a good enough reason to justify postponement of the polls.
The Bench of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Krishna Murari said they were “not inclined” to interfere with the Bombay High Court order or the election process but left the option open for the SEC to approach the High Court in case of any difficulty.
“In the interest of justice, we deem it appropriate to observe that in case of any difficulty, it would be open for the State Election Commission to approach the high court for necessary directions. Subject to the observations foregoing, these Special Leave Petitions stand dismissed. Pending applications also stand disposed of,” the online legal news portal Bar & Bench quoted the order.
The State government was represented by Senior Counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul, who sought to impress the Court that although the monsoon is not a calamity, it can lead to flash floods and such other.
“Who will give the machinery for relief work amidst polls?” he asked but the argument did not impress the bench.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court had on June 28 passed a judgement directing the SEC and the State government to ensure that the elections to 186 panchayats in the State are held within 45 days.
A subsequent plea of the State government seeking to push the polls further by a month citing the monsoon and also the upcoming monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly was also rejected by the Bombay High Court.
The five-year tenure of all the panchayats had ended on June 18.
The SEC, which is the statutory autonomous body entrusted with the responsibility to conduct and oversee the polls had conducted an elaborate exercise for delimitation of wards in all the 186 panchayats, a process it had set in motion last year.
The State government however intervened and put off the election citing the recent Supreme Court judgements related to panchayat elections in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, in which it mandated an elaborate data related exercise referred to as the ‘triple test’ for implementing reservation quota for OBCs.
The State government’s move to push the elections beyond the expiry of their terms and appoint administrators for the interim, was then challenged before the Bombay High Court which then passed its June 28 judgement directing conduct of the elections within 45 days.
With no options left, the State government notified the elections fixing August 10 for polling and August 12 for the results.
A further detailed schedule, including the dates for filing nominations, scrutiny and withdrawals is expected to be notified soon by the SEC.
