SC extends stay on local body election process in Gujarat

Ahmedabad

The Supreme Court today continued the stay on holding of the elections of local bodies of self governance in Gujarat till November 24 as the state government sought further 10 days time to file its reply.

The ruling BJP in the state today said that it would follow all the legal procedures in the wake of the stay. ‘If the need to appoint administrators in some of the local bodies arise it would be done according to the rules and laws,’ state BJP spokesperson I K Jadeja said.

The local body polls in 253 municipalities, 208 taluka panchayats, 26 district panchayats and six municipal corporations were due to be held in October November and are now less likely to be held in time.

The division bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice J Chelameswar which on September 4 had stayed the operation of a Gujarat High Court order dismissing a petition that challenged holding of the local body elections under certain provisions which increased the number of councillors in a ward to four today fixed the next date of hearing on November 24. It continued the earlier stay.

The court on September 4 had issued notices to the Gujarat government, the State Election Commission and others, seeking replies within two weeks. The state government today sought more time to file its reply.

The petition is moved by 4 residents of Vadodara who have challenged certain provisions of the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporation Act, 1949, the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2009 and the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Rules. It is backed by Congress leader Narendra Ravat from Vadodara. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal is lawyer representing the petitioners.

The petitioners have, among other things, challenged the “one ward, four councillors” system adopted by the government for urban local bodies. They had earlier moved a plea before the High Court, which dismissed it in July.

According to the petitioners, the system of having multi-member ward system was discontinued across India as it does not give proper representation to people and also fails to fix responsibility and accountability of a councillor . In Gujarat, the urban local bodies used to have three councillors per ward. However, some time ago, the government announced 50 per cent quota for women and increased the number of councillors per ward to four.