‘Monsoons not an excuse’: Bombay HC tells Goa to notify panchayat polls in 3 days

PANAJI: The monsoons are no excuse to delay the conduct of polls to the local panchayat bodies, the Bombay high court at Goa said on Tuesday, and ordered that the panchayat elections be held in the state within 45 days.

Hearing a bunch of petitions which challenged the decision of the Goa government to delay the elections to elect representatives for the 186 village panchayats in Goa, the high court ruled that “neither the State Election Commission nor the State Government or, for that matter, the State Legislature, including the Supreme Court, in the exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India can countenance dispensation to the contrary” (holding elections within the stipulated time).

The term of the panchayats ended on June 18. Petitioner Sandeep Vazarkar argued that the government’s move not to hold the elections violated the Constitution and several Supreme Court judgments.

The high court rejected the Goa government’s contention that it had taken a “conscious decision” to hold the panchayat polls in September in view of the ongoing monsoon season that often involves inconvenient weather.

“The monsoons, a yearly feature in Goa, cannot be elevated to the level of natural calamity… Merely because there may have been some flash floods or even cyclones in the past, monsoons generally cannot afford an excuse for defying the constitutional mandate in Article 243-E,” the bench of justices MS Sonak and RN Laddha said.

The two-judge bench earlier heard advocate general Devidas Pangam outline the challenges due to the monsoon rains. “In the past, there have been cyclones and floods. The government staff and machinery are involved in disaster management. Therefore, with all responsibility, the state government has taken a ‘conscious decision’ to hold the elections in September 2022,” Pangam said, underlining that Goa receives rainfall of about 110 to 120 inches during the monsoons.

In her affidavit, Goa’s director of panchayats Siddhi Halarnkar said “there are chances of the paper being spoiled or the ink being smudged, etc. when the voter handles the ballot paper while voting in the election” due to the rains

The high court trashed this contention. “With respect to the director, we think that this trivialises the constitutional mandate described by the Supreme Court as inviolable,” the high court observed.

The bench directed the State Election Commission to issue a notification on the date for holding of elections to 186 panchayats in Goa, whose terms have expired or are due to expire shortly, within three days from today (Tuesday) as well as to complete the election process within 45 days.