Elections in 91 urban local bodies (UlBs) of the State are to held as per the State Election Commission’s (SEC) schedule so as to ensure that the new councils are formed before September 28 this year. This was made clear on Tuesday when the Odisha High Court said that it was not inclined to postpone an imminent election.
Accordingly, the high court vacated all interim stay it had granted earlier with respect to the ensuing UlB polls and asserted that no further interim orders would be passed on it as elections are due next month.
Giving liberty to the SEC to go ahead with the election process so as to constitute new UlB councils before September 29, the High Court, however, deemed it fit to admit all the writ petitions which have challenged the quantum of reservations, erratic delimitation of wards and the logic behind holding the elections on the basis of 2001 census.
A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice C Nagappan and Justice Indrajit Mohanti after an analogous hearing of as many as 72 writ petitions also asked the Government and the SEC to file detailed counter affidavits in individual petitions within a period of six weeks.
It may be mentioned that following the publication of reservation of seats for SC, ST, OBC and women, the High Court was flooded with petitions, each challenging the modalities on which these reservation list was prepared. As an interim measure, the HC had earlier restrained the State Election Commission’s (SEC) from going ahead with the election process
While some petitions challenged the quantum of reservation for it exceeded the mandated 50 per cent, others questioned the reason for holding the elections on the basis of the 2001 census, whereas the 2011 census was published on May 30.
Many writs also challenged the 27-per cent reservation for OBC saying there has been no enumeration of OBC in any census. Similarly, some other writs alleged that reservation of seats for women in certain UlBs exceed the upper limit of 50 per cent.
Countering the writs, the Government had told the court that it was duty-bound to follow the mandate of the statute which necessitates reserving 23 per cent of seats for SC and ST and 27 per cent for OBC. On the contentious issue of holding the elections on the basis of the 2001 census, the Government had justified it saying the 2011 census was published on May 30, 2013 whereas the SEC had asked the Government to complete the delimitation and reservation process by January 31, 2013.
In its preliminary counter to the writs, the SEC had argued that since the municipal bodies were formed on September 30, 2008, it was mandated as per the Constitution to constitute new councils before September 29, 2013. In order to complete the election process by due date, the Government was asked to complete the delimitation and reservation processes positively by January-end, the SEC had contended.