The Jharkhand High Court has directed the state government to file a counter affidavit in a petition seeking tenure extension of Ranchi Municipal Corporation ward councillors. Hearing a petition filed by outgoing councillors of RMC, a single bench of Justice Rajesh Shanker asked the state government to file its reply within four weeks. In the meantime, no interim order has been issued.
The petition arose after the tenure of 53 ward councillors ended on April 28 but the state government did not conduct an election. The list of petitioners includes Roshini Khalkho, Arun Kumar Jha, Sunil Yadav and Vinod Kumar Singh besides others.
The councillors in their petition stated that the government failed to conduct local body elections despite sufficient provisions under Section 20 of Ranchi Municipal Act. The petitions also highlight that due to failure of conducting municipal elections of the corporation, many welfare works to be initiated for people of the corporation have been affected.
The petition also mentions that all the work related to the public has been handed over to the officers and common people having no approach to government officials face problems or they have to run for the work to the office which was earlier being done in their respective wards.
The petitioner had pointed out earlier the state government had extended the tenure of local body representatives in rural areas. Outgoing councillor Jha confirmed the development saying the next hearing in the case will take place on June 27.
The HC observation assumes importance as recently, the state government should immediately conduct a triple test so that election for civic bodies could be held with reservation for OBC followed by which Civic body election could be held.
Last week, a meeting of Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) elected councillors was held at the office of Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth on Tuesday. In the meeting, the councillors urged the MP to exert pressure on the State Government for holding the Municipal Corporation elections in the State.
The triple test requires the government to complete three tasks for finalisation of reservation to OBCs in the local bodies. These include: To set up a dedicated commission to conduct a rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness in local bodies; To specify the proportion of reservation required in local bodies in light of recommendations of the commission, so as not to fall foul of overbreadth; To ensure reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs taken together does not exceed an aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats.
The Supreme Court in March this year paved the way for holding urban local body polls in Uttar Pradesh with reservation for the other backward classes, after it was convinced that the state followed the mandatory triple test criteria. Civic polls in UP will be held following the triple test formula.