THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
PANJIM: While the BJP-led Goa government is considering the postponement of the elections to 186 panchayats, due before June 19, citing the “triple test” criteria laid down for reservations by the Supreme Court, the same judgment, pronounced by the three-judge bench, has held “constitutional mandate” for the conduct of elections before the expiry of the five-year tenure of local bodies “inviolable”. (sacrosanct/secure from violation)
“Elections which are already due need not and cannot be delayed on that (triple-test) count in view of the constitutional mandate,” a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar, AS Oka, and CT Ravikumar said in a matter related to local body elections in Madhya Pradesh.
“As and when, the formalities of the triple test are completed, that can be reckoned for future elections to be held thereafter,” the bench said, adding that the election process cannot be delayed as it would result in a hiatus upon the expiry of the five-year term and that it is the constitutional obligation of the authorities to hold elections on time.
Members of the legal fraternity said that constitutionally it is not possible to postpone the elections after the expiry of the term and that the State Election Commission is duty-bound to conduct elections on time.
Former Advocate General Dattaprasad Lawande said, “The judgment that the government is citing is not applicable. The judgment nowhere speaks about postponing the polls. Only if the circumstances are beyond the control of the government only then the elections can be postponed.”
He said that the Supreme Court, in a previous order in Kishan Singh Tomar is very clear on elections, which makes it clear that elections have to be within the Constitutional mandate.
Another senior lawyer, S N Joshi, said that it is incumbent upon the SEC to conduct elections on time before the term is over. “The judgment clearly says that if the elections are due, then SEC can treat OBC seats as general and go ahead with the election and triple test can be reckoned for future elections. SEC can do reservations for ST and SC and conduct elections on time,” he said.
High Court lawyer Galileo Teles too said that there is a Constitutional obligation on the State Election Commission to ensure that the election programme is concluded. The newly elected body is installed before the expiry of five years tenure of the outgoing elected body.
“Elections cannot be therefore postponed merely because the exercise of reservation for the OBCs is not completed in terms of the triple test laid down by the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in the case of K Krishnamuthy vs Union of India in the year 2010,” he said.
In fact the Supreme Court in its decision dated May 10, 2022, directed the State Election Commission in Madhya Pradesh to notify the election programme without any further delay holding that the triple test formality can wait if not completed well before the expiry of five years terms of the outgoing elected body, he added.
