Team Herald
PANJIM: Observing that the State Election Commission (SEC) is “eager” and “competent” to complete the process to elect the new members across 186 village panchayats at the earliest, the Bombay High Court at Goa on Thursday dismissed the State government’s plea seeking extension till September 12 to hold the polls, which are overdue. As the government’s last resort to postpone the polls failed, it will now have to complete the entire process by August 12.
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The State government had on Wednesday moved an application before the High Court seeking 30 days extension to complete the poll process as it citied upcoming State Legislative Assembly Session to be held between July 11 to August 12 and the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities commencing from August 31, as excuse.
The Division Bench comprising Justice MS Sonak and Justice RN Laddha, however, dismissed the petition as they did not find the reasons substantial to exercise their discretion to extend the election process any further.
“…two reasons now cited by the State government are neither the reasons on which Supreme Court has permitted some deviation from the Constitutional mandate of Article 243-E, nor can we say that these are good and substantial reasons to exercise our discretion to extend the election process any further,” the Bench said.
“…based on the two reasons cited, we do not think it would be appropriate to countenance the perpetuation of the Constitutional mandate,” it said.
“The ultimate responsibility for the conduct of the elections is of the SEC. This application is not made by the SEC. Instead, the SEC maintains that it is both eager and competent to complete the election process,” the High Court said further.
Earlier on June 28, the High Court had quashed State government decision to postpone the elections and had directed the SEC to complete the polls process within 45 days from now. The government has to finalise the election date within three days and issue notification, as mandated.
The Division Bench pointed out that at the stage of earlier order dated June 28, there was “not even a whisper about the reasons now offered in the application. The sole contention was the monsoon”.
While the term of 185 panchayats ended on June 18, another panchayat term is set to expire on July 7.
The High Court said that except for the man-made calamities like rioting, no other circumstances, the election authorities can justify in delaying the election process.
Govt contended
The learned Advocate General submits that there will be discussions on the Budget in the Session. However, he presents that once the elections are declared, the Model Code of Conduct will set in, and the discussions on the Budget or even passing the Budget may not be possible.
He pointed out how the Budget Session in 2021 had to be curtailed on account of Municipality polls.
The learned Advocate General submitted that the State government was prepared to issue the notification under Rule 10 of the Election Procedure Rules, 1996 by Friday itself. He proposed that the direction should be issued to the SEC to enforce the Model Code of Conduct only after the conclusion of the Assembly Session, i.e. after August 12.
SEC submission
The SEC was eager to hold the elections at the earliest in terms of the directions issued by the High Court. He, however, submitted that there might be some staff issues if the election process and the Assembly Session proceed simultaneously. He submitted that the Budgetary Session’s announcements might affect the level playing field the Code of Conduct seeks to maintain. However, the SEC maintained that the elections should be held at the earliest given the Constitutional mandate in Article 243-E.
