he Goa government is in a piquant situation over the issue of holding general elections to Village Panchayats after it was caught napping more so since the Supreme Court by a judgment ordered triple test for reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities for local self body elections in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
From the beginning the Goa government had no intention to conduct panchayat elections as per schedule given that fact that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured only 33 per cent of the votes in the 2022 Assembly polls. The BJP was afraid to face panchayat elections within three months from the conclusion of Assembly polls fearing backlash that the party-backed candidates may bite dust at the hustings. So it thought wise to postpone panchayat elections so that the party can woo those voters who had not voted for them in the Assembly polls.
Had it not for a writ petition by former Socorro Sarpanch Sandeep Vazarkar, the Goa government would have continued to play hide and seek over the now-vastly discussed elections to the 186 Village Panchayats.
Amidst the blame game over the finalisation of dates, as the 2017-2022 term expired on June 18, the High Court of Bombay at Goa did not agree with the government’s list of excuses to postpone the elections to September. The Supreme Court too upheld High Court’s order forcing the government to stick to its notification - which came in compliance with High Court’s directions - declaring the polls on August 10 and counting on August 12.
The upcoming panchayat elections also exposed differences between the State government and the State Election Commission (SEC) wherein the adamant government sought a postponement, the latter kept recommending new dates to hold the polls before the term ended.
Vazarkar’s writ petition was a game-changer. Though his prayer to the court was to complete the election process in his village panchayat at the earliest, it was a known fact that order will have an overall impact on the entire election process.
While the SEC extended support to the petitioner, its legal representative Adv S N Joshi also submitted that it made all arrangements to hold the elections on May 29, 2022. After that, the SEC proposed holding elections on June 4, June 11, and June 17, 2022, but the government showed the least interest. Advocate General Devidas Pangam on the other hand justified that it agreed to June 4 but the SEC proposed several changes in dates besides seeking compliances concerning certain Court directions.
Goa experiencing heavy rains during monsoon in addition to floods and flash floods in vulnerable talukas to commencement of the monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly from July 11, etc did not save the government’s interest in holding back the elections. AG’s suggestion for triple test and reservation for OBC communities was in vain. The SEC stood its ground that it is ready to hold elections as per High Court’s directives and it recommended several dates to the government to hold the polls before the term’s end on June 18, 2022.
The Division Bench of Justice M S Sonak and Justice R N Laddha, on June 28, directed a notification within three days and completion of the election process within 45 days that is August 12. A revision petition filed by the government soon thereafter urging to allow an additional 30 days to complete the process for holding the polls, too did not please the Court.
The Court made some strong observations that the government had no powers to decide on the election process apart from issuing a notification. The Court pointed out that considering the constitutional position, independent application of mind by the SEC was imperative and that “monsoon” cannot be an excuse for defying the constitutional mandate while quashing the government’s decision to postpone the elections.
But while the government complied with the High Court’s directives to issue a notification within the given period, in a last-ditch effort, it appeared before the Supreme Court challenging High Court’s order.
The vacation bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Krishna Murari refused to interfere with the order of the High Court, while observing that its verdict was in compliance with Article 243E of the Constitution of India, which deals with the Panchayat and that decision of the Apex Court in Suresh Mahajan v/s State of Madhya Pradesh, demanded no interference. With the petition’s dismissal, the pabchayat elections are set to go as per the schedule.
While the government faced setbacks as the entire drama also unfolded differences between the government and the SEC, when the latter calling for a press conference on May 23 to announce the poll schedule and its cancellation soon thereafter reportedly exposed interference in the process.
After all lame excuses did not stand scrutiny of Court and finding no escape route the government cited panchayat elections and chose to curtail the month-long monsoon session of Goa Assembly to 10 days much to the chagrin of the opposition parties.
The SEC had started the preparations to conduct general panchayat elections six months before the end of the five-year term of the Village Pnachayats. It requested the government to undertake the process of delimitation of panchayat wards and to reserve wards for OBC communities as mandated by the Apex Court. In March 2022, the Commission wrote to the government proposing to hold panchayat polls in the last week of May and the dates were revised twice.