Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Wednesday directed the Goa government and State Election Commission (SEC) to hold the Panchayat polls on or before June 12 while disposing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) pertaining to the ensuing Panchayat polls. The government had earlier scheduled to hold the election on June 17.
The High Court also slammed the Goa government for delaying the process of delimitation of Panchayat wards causing delay in the election, though the government had submitted to the court that the entire panchayat poll process was delayed due to the election code of conduct.
The High Court declined the contention of the State government that they could not proceed with the delimitation process as the election code of conduct was in force. The HC observed that there is no bar in going ahead with the process to delimit Panchayat wards during the code of conduct.
Goa government had submitted that the process to delimit wards of panchayats would be completed by May 5 and within the next four days the notification reserving the wards for the reserved category would be notified.
The State Election Commission has submitted in court that they would require 33 days to hold the panchayat election after the government completes the process to delimit and reserve the Panchayats.
