NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The High Court of Bombay at Goa has directed the state election commission and the government to hold panchayat elections in the state on or before June 12.
The state government had submitted its say before the High Court as regards the petitions filed challenging the process of delimitation of wards and reservation undertaken by the directorate of panchayats, as well as the validity of holding elections in violation of the constitutional mandate.
The High Court has slammed the state government for delaying the process of delimitation of panchayat areas causing delay in holding the elections.
The state had earlier submitted before the High Court that the delimitation would be done by May 12 and notification would be issued by May 25.
While submitting its final contentions before the High Court, the state government stated that the process to delimit the panchayat areas would be completed by May 5, and later on in four days the notification reserving the panchayats for the reserved categories would be issued.
A petition filed by Rohan Shirodkar, a lawyer from Bicholim, said that as stipulated in Article 243E of the Constitution of India the 185 village panchayats shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting – the village panchayats shall continue about the end of May, 2017, and as mandated and stipulated in Article 243E (3) (a) of the Constitution, the election to constitute the 185 village panchayats shall be completed before the expiry of their duration viz. before the end of May, 2017.
The government had submitted before the High Court of Bombay at Goa to consider assembly elections as an ‘exceptional case’ to postpone the panchayat elections in the state. The government in an affidavit submitted before the High Court had justified its decision to defer the polls of panchayats due to the code of conduct enforced for the assembly elections.
The government had also stated in the affidavit that the interests of the state suffered due to the prolonged code of conduct and it could not take any policy decision.
The state poll panel had submitted that they require 33 days to hold the panchayat elections after the government completes the process to delimit and reserve the panchayats.
After considering the contentions of all the parties the High Court directed the authorities to hold the panchayat polls on or before June 12.