Team Herald
PANJIM: Three individuals have approached the High Court of Bombay at Goa challenging the reservation of three constituencies for the Zilla Panchayat elections, scheduled on March 22.
Admitting the petition on Tuesday, the High Court refused to stay the election process citing a Supreme Court order on conducting elections to ZP constituencies before the end of five-year term. In Goa, the tenure of the existing panel ends on March 24.
The petitioners from Usgao-Ganje, Guirdolim and Colva constituencies have challenged the constitutional validity of power vested in government to reserve the constituencies.
One of the petitioners Dnyaneshwar Naik submitted that for the last two terms Usgao-Ganje was reserved for women (2010 year) and OBC (2015), and in the upcoming election too, the constituency is reserved for ST category.
“It has deprived the general category candidates to contest the elections. We are not saying ‘no’ to reservation, but give equal chance to general category also,” the petitioner said.
The petitioners further alleged that the authorities announced Code of Conduct soon after notification reserving constituencies for ZP elections. “The authorities did not give us any time to challenge the reservation. We are thus forced to approach the court,” another petitioner said.
The Court has slated the matter for hearing after the election process.
