PANJIM: The elections to 186 village panchayats, which were due next month, almost stand postponed for three months and will now be held, after the monsoon. Though the final decision lies with the State Election Commission (SEC), the government has decided to appoint administrators to look into the affairs of the panchayats, as the term of existing bodies ends on June 19.
“The government has decided to postpone the elections and have it after three months due to monsoons. We have also decided to appoint the administrator on the panchayat,” Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant told media persons on Wednesday.
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Using the monsoons as one of the reasons is interesting. The southwest monsoons are likely to advance over Goa by the first week of June.
Herald had earlier reported how the three-bench Apex Court had held a “constitutional mandate” for the conduct of elections before the expiry of the five-year tenure of local bodies “inviolable”.
However, the State government may have found a window in the recent Supreme Court directive in Maharashtra where it asked the (SEC) to complete its pre-election process and conduct polls wherever possible, during the monsoon months (June to August), particularly in areas where rainfall is low.
Last Tuesday, a bench of justices A M Khanwilkar, A S Oka, and C T Ravikumar said, “Entire Maharashtra is not monsoon affected. Wherever it is impossible and where monsoon is an impediment, we will permit you.”
The State government had tentatively scheduled panchayat elections on June 4. Accordingly, the SEC had notified the ward delimitation and had even submitted the seat reservation proposal to the government, by de-reserving OBC.
In a bid to follow the triple-test mandate laid down by the Supreme Court for OBC reservation, the government has decided to ask the Other Backward Classes Commission to prepare report on the community population and reservation, accordingly.
He said that the OBC Commission has been asked to work on the reservation and the SEC has been recommended to follow the triple-test direction. “With all these recommendations, we have sent the file to SEC, who will make the final decision,” Sawant said.
However, State Advocate General Devidas Pangam opined that the government that should follow the triple-test mandate and that the polls should be held at the earliest thereafter.
Under the triple test, the State government has to appoint panels, collect empirical data for quantifying the extent and backwardness of every panchayat while ensuring that the reservation quota does not exceed the 50 percent ceiling.
“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 on May 10.
SC directives do not mandate postponement of p’yat polls: Ex-SEC
Team Herald
MARGAO: Former State Election Commissioner Prabhahar Timble on Wednesday emphasised that the directives of the Supreme Court do not mandate postponement of panchayat polls.
Timble said, “The mandate of the State Election Commission is to ensure timely elections to the local bodies. In fact, this is the one and only function of the SEC. If it fails in its primary constitutional duty, then it reduces itself to yet another department of the government and surrenders its independence and autonomy before the ruling political executive.”
“Whatever is the directive of the Supreme Court in respect of OBC reservations, it does not provide the licence to postpone the mandated elections beyond the term of the panchayats. Even in the wildest imagination this could not be the intention or outcome of the court judgment,” he said.
“That monsoons will hit Goa in mid-June was known well in advance. It is a poor consolation if the SEC is postponing elections upholding these reasons,” Timble said.
“Appointment of government administrators is unthinkable despite the existence of independent statutory authority. It only proves the failure of the SEC to stop the malpractice of appointment of government administrators and be an abettor in this game. In fact, SEC is providing legality to the illegal practice,” he added.
