Cannot interfere in panchayat poll process, says HC

The Telangana High Court on Thursday (December 04) declined to interfere in a batch of writ petitions seeking re-determination of reservations in some gram panchayats of the State during the ongoing elections for rural local bodies.

A bench of Justices P. Sam Koshy and Suddala Chalapathi Rao observed that the courts cannot interfere with the process of elections once the notification is issued, as per Article 243-O of the Constitution. The bench was hearing the pleas seeking directions to the government to stall the process of elections where reservations for the posts of sarpanches and ward members were made to specific communities, but an adequate number of people from those communities were not available to contest the polls.

The petitioners wanted to cancel the elections in such gram panchayats and re-allot the reservations based on the current population in those villages. The State Election Commission informed the bench that once the process of the ongoing panchayat elections is completed, elections can be held to the posts of sarpanches and ward members in such panchayats where no candidates were available from the communities for which the posts were reserved.

The SEC also said that already filing of nominations for the first two phases was over and the process for the third phase was on. At this stage, elections cannot be stalled, the SEC counsel said. The counsels for the petitioners contended that they did not seek cancellation of the entire elections but requested re-determination of reservations where candidates from the communities for whom the reservations were made were not available to contest the polls.

The bench, however, dismissed another petition in which 29 IAS officers were made respondents, stating that reservations for Backward Classes were reduced from the earlier 24% to the present 17% as against the more than 40% of BC population in the State. The bench took a serious exception to including 29 IAS officers as respondents in the plea and dismissed it.