PANAJI: The Bombay High Court at Goa on Tuesday refused to grant interim stay to the March 22 Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections in three constituencies of Ganjem-Usgao, Colva and Guirdolim even as the court stated that the result in these constituencies will depend on the outcome of the petitions.
Peeved at the reservation of constituencies for Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections, four-time Colva ZP Member Nelly Rodrigues, Janu Gaonkar and Dnyneshwar Naik on Monday filed separate writ petitions before the Bombay High Court at Goa, challenging the reservation policy for ZP elections, notified by the State government.
Colva ZP constituency has been reserved for women candidates belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities while, Guirdolim has been reserved for the third consecutive term for women candidates. Similarly Ganjem-Usgao constituencies which was reserved for OBC candidates in 2012 has now been reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities.
Nelly in her petition had claimed that the reservation of ZP constituencies was not done in compliance of rotation system but it was rather in rank breach thereof. She argued that the government's notification of reservation of ZP constituencies was in contravention of the principle of rotation prescribed in section 7 (6) of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act.
Janu Gaonkar also stated that Guirdolim ZP constituency had been reserved for the third time. He said that the reservation violates the principle of rotation prescribed under Article 243D of the Constitution of India and that reserving Guirdolim for the third consecutive term for women was grossly arbitrary, unreasonable and illegal.