SURAJ NANDREKAR
suraj@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Zilla Panchayat polls may have been cancelled after the video conference between Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but before this the State was determined on conducting the elections.
This was quite clear in the High Court of Bombay at Goa when the petition for cancellation came up as Advocate General Devidas Pangam told the court that “there was no guarantee whether the situation on COVID-19 will improve in future or not. Therefore, this is the appropriate stage at which elections can be held and concluded.”
The High Court of Bombay at Goa disposed off the petition demanding postponement of the March 24 ZP elections after the State Election Commission (SEC) filed an affidavit before the court that the elections have been postponed until further orders. The SEC informed the court that the situation will be reviewed after two weeks’ time.
The petition was filed by social activist from Vasco, Kenneth Silveira seeking cancellation of elections in wake of COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Interestingly, the Advocate General submitted to the court that the decision not to postpone the polling any further, is broadly based upon the following reasons:
(a) Up to now not a single case of COVID-19 is tested positive in the State of Goa;
(b) Precautionary measures are in place to see that no such positive tested patients enter State of Goa;
(c) Several steps have been taken to enforce social distancing at the polling booths and the SEC itself has issued several directives in this regard;
(d) There is no guarantee whether the situation on COVID-19 will improve in future or not. Therefore, this is the appropriate stage at which elections can be held and concluded;
(e) That the Panchayat Raj Act, as well as the Constitution of India mandates a freshly elected committee to be in place before the expiry of the 5 year term of the previous committee. This term expires on 24th March, 2020 and, therefore, polling has to take place on or before the said date.
S N Joshi, on behalf of the SEC, made a statement that the SEC has gone by the decision of the Government in this matter. However, at a later stage, he attempted to explain that the SEC was also involved in the decision making process and this fact is made clear in the affidavit which he later handed over to the Court.
The above submission revealed that for the government holding the polls were more important than the health of the citizens.
