PANJIM: The High Court in no uncertain terms pointed out the total failure of the Goa Government and OBC commission - using the tough words “did nothing”- in implementing the OBC reservations of the panchayat polls, using the triple test formula. The key tenet of the formula is to do a empirical through ground level data study on the OBC population in each village panchayat as well as consider the population of other weaker sections in the same area
Scoffing at the state government and the State Election Commission, The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Friday strongly reprimanded the State government and the State Election Commission (SEC) for not following the triple-test procedure while notifying the OBC reservation for the upcoming elections to 186 Village Panchayats (VPs). At the same time the Court observed that this has not been done for 12 years.
In its interim order on petitions challenging the reservation notification by the SEC, the Division Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice R N Laddha stated that the government did not follow the triple test. However, this does not impact the ensuing elections as it can go ahead as per schedule on August 10, with counting on August 12.
The Court, in its 28-page order, also observed that the elections to five VPs, Nagoa-Arpora, Parra, Candolim, Mandrem and Saligao will be subject to the outcome of the petitions.
“The material on record establishes that the State Government and the OBC Commission did practically nothing towards compliance with the triple test requirements for the last 12 years. The triple test requirements were reiterated on March 4, 2021. There is a record that the State Government and the OBC Commission were fully aware of it but did almost nothing to comply with the formulated triple test,” says the order, in a gist.
The Court also hinted at political interference stating that the SEC, being a constitutional body to enforce the Constitution and comply with the directions issued by the Apex Court, protested, but was ineffective. “The SEC ultimately agreed to toe the line of the State Government and tolerated the postponement until the matters landed before the Courts,” the court said.
The Court, while referring to the government's submission seeking postponement of polls in a previous petition that challenged the delay in the elections, stated that at least up to July 1, when the SEC issued a notification providing reservations to SC/ST categories, no such data compliant with the triple test requirements was available with the State Government. Further, the Counsel for the OBC Commission could not explain why the authorities failed to comply with the triple test well before the expiry of the term of the panchayats on June 18, 2022.
“It is clear that the OBC Commission commenced the contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry after the receipt of the information from the State Government, vide communication dated June 29, 2022. However, the report of the OBC Commission, which is the basis for the SEC decision, is dated July 5, 2022 and the material on record suggests that the Commission completed this so-called inquiry within 4-5 days,” it said, adding, “A perusal of the OBC Commission report also does not make clear the nature of inquiry conducted by the Commission.
The report adverts the census of 2011 and the CDPR Report of 2013. This exercise is more mathematical, than a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of backwardness of OBC communities.”
“In our opinion, this is a rather strange procedure followed by the SEC of entertaining applications of disgruntled persons simply because the Government forwarded the same with a request to revisit the reservations.”