Bombay High Court slams Goa govt over seats reserved for women, ST community

In an embarrassment to the state government, the Bombay High Court bench in Goa on Monday slammed a top government official for reserving wards for women and Schedule Tribes communities in the upcoming municipal polls on his "whims and caprices", forcing the postponement of elections to five out of the 11 municipal councils, which were scheduled to go to polls on March 20.

The Opposition has hailed the High Court order, with state Congress president Girish Chodankar even demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for manipulating the municipal poll process.

"The HC has quashed reservation notification in respect of five municipalities namely Sanguem, Margao, Mormugao, Mapusa and Quepem. HC has also said that the notification has to be issued as early as possible and fresh notification issuance, thereafter elections have to be conducted at the earliest. The dates have to be scheduled by the SEC," Goa Advocate General Devidas Pangam told reporters on Monday.

Justices Bharati Dangre and Satish Sonak in their order highlighted several discrepancies in the reservation of wards for women and the ST community.

"The constituency which has more than 30 per cent ST population has left unreserved and constituency which has only 1 (one) ST member corresponding to 0.23 per cent ST population is reserved for ST. The impugned order dated February 4, 2021, to the extent it reserves ward No.1 for ST, is vitiated by arbitrariness, unreasonableness, and non-application of mind," the order said referring to discrepancies in the constituency reservation schedule for the Sanguem municipality.

The Court also faulted the procedure for reservation of seats for women in the Mormugao and the Mapusa municipalities.

"There is no dispute and the record bears out that in Mormugao Municipal Council the total number of seats to be filled by direct election amounts to 25. Out of these, only 8 seats have been reserved for women. The reservation of only eight seats out of 25 seats certainly amounts to reservation of less than one-third of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election to the Mormugao Municipal Council," the order said.

Reacting to the development, state Congress president Girish Chodankar said: "Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the Minister for Municipal Administration Milind Naik should resign after this High Court order for trying to openly manipulate the election process".

State BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said that the Goa government would appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC order.

"The government will appeal in the HC. Finally, decisions related to the reservation of wards are done by the Directorate of Municipal Administration. It is up to them," Tanavade said.

The municipal elections are the last round of polls, ahead of the state assembly elections, which are scheduled to be held in early 2022.