Guj polls:HC rejects pleas against SEC order on reserved seats

The Gujarat High Court onWednesday rejected a batch of petitions challenging the StateElection Commission's (SEC) order regarding the rotation ofreserved seats for the upcoming Panchayat polls, saying itwould not intervene as elections are already notified to beheld on February 28.

A division bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and JusticeIlesh Vora said it would not go into the matter at the lastminute.

One of the petitioners, Dinesh Gamit, a ScheduledTribe candidate from Tapi district, sought the high court'sdirection to quash the SEC's order dated September 9, 2020,reserving Chimer seat in Tapi district Panchayat for 'STWoman'. He requested that the seat be reserved for 'STGeneral' so that he could also contest.

The said constituency has been reserved for 'ST Woman'since the past two decades, due to which no male candidatecould contest from there, he said.

As per the Rule 5 of the Gujarat Taluka and DistrictPanchayats (Delimitation of Electoral Division) Rules, 2010,framed by the state government under the Gujarat PanchayatAct, 1993, the SEC should first publish a proposed orderregarding the rotation of reserved seats, then invitesuggestions from the general public before coming up with thefinal order, said the petitions.

As per the pleas, the SEC's order on allotment andreservation of seats is in violation of the said Rules 2010,because no objections, if any, was invited from the generalpublic.

In its reply, the SEC had told the high court that theelection programme for the said panchayat seat was alreadynotified on January 23, and the elections are scheduled to beheld on February 28.

It said the validity of delimitation and allotment ofseats under Article 243-K of the Constitution (related toelection to the Panchayats) cannot be questioned in any court.

And if at all, it can only be done by way of an electionpetition.

The SEC further said the right to contest the electionflows from a statute and hence no fundamental rights or anyother legal rights of the petitioner is infringed,as claimedin the plea, and hence the petition is not maintainable.

It had also said that the Rule 5 of the DelimitationRules 2010 applies only when there is a fresh delimitation orallotment of reserved seats.

Since no no fresh delimitation or allotment wasundertaken for the ensuing elections, it was not necessary tocomply with the requirement under Rule 5 of the Rules 2010.

The local body elections are scheduled to be held intwo phases on February 21 and 28.