Goa: Voting for panchayats on Aug 10, says govt after HC denies extra time

PANAJI: Within hours of the high court of Bombay at Goa dismissing the state government’s application seeking an additional month to hold elections to 186 panchayats, the state government on Thursday issued a notification to hold the polls on August 10.
“Counting dates are still not final but should be held before August 12. In all probability, counting is likely to take place on August 12,” a senior government officer said.
The detailed schedule for panchayat elections will be declared by the state election commission (SEC) within a few days.
The high court did not accept the state government’s reasons for seeking extension — the assembly session to be held between July 11 and August 12 and Ganesh Chaturthi festivities from August 31.
“…the two reasons now cited by the state government are neither the reasons on which the Supreme Court has permitted some deviation from the constitutional mandate of Article 243-E, nor can we say that these are good and substantial reasons to exercise our discretion to extend the election process any further,” the division bench of Justices Mahesh Sonak and R N Laddha said.
The judgment comes two days after the high court directed the state government to fix dates for panchayat elections within three days and complete the entire election exercise within 45 days.
The court had pulled up the state government for making allegations against the SEC and said that this is the fourth instance in the past two decades that the elections haven’t been held on time as per the constitutional mandate in Article 243-E.
It said that the plea for additional time till September 12 is being sought by the state government and not by the SEC.
The SEC had told the court that the elections could not be held only because the state government failed to issue a notification.
Advocate general Devidas Pangam told the high court that the state government is ready to issue the notification if the SEC imposes the model code of conduct only after the assembly session ends on August 12.
Pangam said that there will be discussions on the budget in the session and once elections are declared and the model code of conduct sets in, discussions on the budget or passing it may not be possible.
Original petitioner Sandeep Vazarkar’s advocate Y V Nadkarni told the court that Goa Appropriation (vote on account) Bill, 2022, had already been passed by the assembly on March 1. He pointed to a Supreme Court order of January 23, 2017, where the SC rejected the contention that no Budget session of the parliament could be held when the code of conduct is in force. He also referred to a similar news item about Odisha.
SEC counsel S N Joshi said that there might be some staff issues if the poll process and the assembly session proceed simultaneously.
“The staff issue reason was cited even on earlier occasions, as discussed in the main judgment. But considering the constitutional imperative, such reasons were not accepted as good reasons to breach the constitutional mandate. The Supreme Court has made it clear that all authorities must cooperate with the SEC in complying with the constitutional mandate,” the high court held.