Delimitation, reservation must for panchayat polls: SC

The Supreme Court on Friday said that the constitutional object of Panchayat and local self-governance cannot be effectively achieved unless the delimitation exercise and reservation in proportion to the population of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at all levels were properly undertaken.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde said that the Panchayats have to mandatorily be constituted in a state at the village, intermediate and district levels. Seats in proportion to the population must be reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in each panchayat.

On a petition filed by DMK, the court said the election process as per the notification by the State Election Commission on December 2, 2019, in the newly constituted nine districts of Tamil Nadu cannot be held unless fresh delimitation exercise was first completed.

The top court noted that it was clear that the Tamil Nadu government cannot fulfil the constitutional mandate, since despite a subsequent increase in number of districts from 30 to 39 in Tamil Nadu, no fresh delimitation exercise was undertaken.

“The state government cannot justify holding local body elections of these nine districts by relying upon this Court’s order of November 18, 2019 as the said order itself mandates notification of elections only after completing “all legal formalities”,” the bench said.

The court halted polls in nine reconstituted districts of Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Thirupathur, Ranipet, Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Tirunelveli and Tenkasi. It gave four months time to finish delimitation exercise in nine districts.

It said the elections could be held to all Panchayats at village, intermediate and district levels, except in nine districts.