Mokokchung, July 29 (MTNews): The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and women’s rights activist Rosemary Dzuvichu on Friday, directed the Nagaland State Election Commission to complete local body elections and declare the results by the end of January 2023, according to livelaw.com portal. The case will be tried again in the second week of February 2023 for reporting compliance.
A Division Bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh passed this order on Friday.
The case titled, ‘People’s Union For Civil Liberties (PUCL) vs The State of Nagaland’ challenged the Nagaland Assembly’s resolution dated September 22, 2021 exempting operation of Part IXA of the Constitution of India, which mandates 33% reservation for women, in Municipalities and Town Councils of the State.
In an earlier hearing in April, the State of Nagaland informed the Supreme Court of its plan to adopt 33 percent reservation for women in local self-government institutions, in accordance with the Court’s prior judgment.
As a result, the Court directed the State Election Commission to notify the public of the election schedule. When the case was called for hearing today, the lawyer for the Nagaland State Election Commission informed the Bench that the State government has filed two affidavits in the case.
“We had kept it today for the purposes of the state election commission to file an affidavit as to what is the date when they will notify the election. That’s all we ask”, the Bench said.
The counsel then replied that as far as the schedule was concerned, they are sticking to November 24 but “only subject to state approval,” they can notify the elections.
The bench then asked both the State Government and the State Election Commission to notify the date.
“Sir, in January,” was the response.
“12 years have gone by; you have to hold elections…” the court exclaimed.
“We will hold elections…” reassured the counsel.
“When? In 2026?” the Bench shot back.
“24th Nov is the date for publication of the electoral roll. 25th November, if we start the process for conducting elections, it will go up to 25th January, because there is a 10 day holiday period in between. So, the process will begin after 25th January.”
“Ms Counsel, I don’t want the state government and state election commission to do this. You cannot begin the election process after January,” the court replied sternly.
After the court passed its directions, Advocate General KN Balgopal sought for more time to complete and declare the results of the elections. He stated that during the period between December and January, the attendance of officers would be very weak because of the weather conditions, etc.
“You keep on postponing it, how many years have gone by…” the bench pointed out.