The High Court has strongly reprimanded the state government regarding the pending local body elections in Telangana. The court has given a clear order to the government to announce the election dates by 24th of this month, which has created a stir in the political circles of the state. Citing Article 243-E of the Constitution, the High Court said that it is mandatory to hold elections within 6 months of the end of the tenure of the Panchayats and any delay in it is unconstitutional.
During this, the government argued that their objection was only on the issue of Backward Class (BC) reservation and not against holding elections. The State Election Commission (SEC) had put forward a proposal that except BC reserved gram panchayats, elections should be held first in other villages. However, the High Court rejected the idea of holding phase-wise elections and said that dividing the elections in this way is constitutionally wrong. The court has made it clear that the issue of reservation can be resolved separately, but delay in elections will not be tolerated.
The government is disobeying the instructions of the High Court
Disregarding the repeated instructions given by the Telangana High Court and the deadline set by it, the state government is adopting an adamant stand on postponing the local body elections indefinitely. The High Court had set a fixed deadline for the State Election Commission to issue notification of the pending elections and complete the process, which has now long passed.
What is the government’s stance?
The government has a firm stand that it is not ready to conduct elections without practically implementing its historic decision of providing 42 percent reservation to the Backward Classes (BC). This reservation bill was recently passed with much fanfare in the state assembly, the main objective of which is to ensure a strong and influential share of the backward classes in the politics and administrative system of the state. Calling it his commitment towards social justice, the Chief Minister has made it clear that holding elections without reservation would be injustice to the backward classes.
Panchayats running with the help of special officers
Due to this impasse, democratic institutions like gram panchayats, mandal councils and municipal bodies have been run through special officers in the absence of public representatives for months. Opposition parties have strongly opposed this situation. They allege that the government is weakening the basic structure of democracy for its political interests and is openly disobeying the orders of the judiciary.
Now all eyes are on whether the High Court will take steps like contempt proceedings against the government in this matter or whether the government will move forward giving priority to its political agenda. This controversy reflects a serious conflict between the politics, administration and judiciary of the state.
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