Mumbai: The Supreme Court’s interim order on Friday on Maharashtra’s long-pending local body elections has created fresh uncertainty over the schedule for district council and panchayat samiti polls. Officials indicated that the State Election Commission (SEC) may now hold the municipal corporation elections in the second phase and push the district council and panchayat samiti polls to the final phase, allowing more time for clarity.
On Friday, the Supreme Court directed the SEC to go ahead with the elections for 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats as per schedule on December 2. However, the results of 57 of these local bodies, where the 50% reservation ceiling has been breached, would be subject to the outcome of the final court ruling.
Similarly, the apex court also allowed elections to all 29 municipal corporations to be conducted as scheduled, although the results of two civic bodies—Nagpur and Chandrapur—will be subject to the final verdict.
The ambiguity arises in the case of 32 district councils and 336 panchayat samitis, where the court has permitted the SEC to proceed with elections only in the bodies that have not crossed the 50% reservation limit. Of these, 17 district councils and 84 panchayat samitis have breached the cap.
On November 4, the SEC had announced that elections to municipal councils and nagar panchayats will be held under the first phase on December 2. HT had reported that district council and panchayat samiti elections were expected to be held in the second phase in the last week of December, with municipal corporation polls reserved for the final phase in the third week of January.
However, following the Supreme Court’s interim order on Friday, SEC officials said that the elections to municipal councils and nagar panchayats will be held on December 2, but the ambiguity over the district council and panchayat samiti polls still prevails.
“It is not clear if we can hold the elections to the district councils and panchayat samitis exceeding the quota by bringing it below 50%. We will discuss the order with our counsels for clarity and take a call early next week,” said an SEC official, requesting anonymity.
The SEC is unlikely to approach the apex court again for clarity, but may wait for other petitioners to do so. “We may hold the municipal corporation elections in the second phase in the first or second week of January, and keep the district council and panchayat samiti elections for the third phase by the end of January. We are bound to complete all three phases by the deadline of January 31. By interchanging the second and third phases, we can get more time to take a call on district councils and panchayat samitis that have exceeded the reservation limit. If we cannot make any decision over them, we will announce the polls for the ones that are within the limit of 50% reservation,” said another SEC official.
Advocate Devdatt Palodkar, appearing on behalf of petitioner Rahul Ramesh Wagh, said that the Supreme Court’s order allows the SEC to go ahead with the district council and panchayat samiti elections that have not exceeded the 50% cap, while it can reduce reservation in the others to bring them within the ceiling. “Some of these district councils and panchayat samitis have exceeded the reservation in one or two constituencies and will not need more time to re-do the reservation,” he added.
Another petitioner, Vikas Gawali, said the uncertainty over elected candidates from the bodies exceeding the 50% mark will loom large till the final verdict. “We were expecting the apex court to give its ruling on these bodies too, without deferring it. If the elections of these elected representatives it cancelled in the future, as had happened five years ago, it would be unjust to them,” he added.