Election panel approaches HC over BC head count

In an interesting development, the State Election Commission has moved the Hyderabad High Court seeking a direction to the state government to complete the enumeration of BC population and reservation of wards in a timebound manner to conduct elections to panchayati raj institutions.

State Election Commissioner M. Ashok Kumar moved the petition stating that the SEC was not at fault for not conducting the elections. It was unable to hold the elections as the state government had not completed the enumeration of BCs and had not reserved wards.

He submitted that the SEC had written in March informing the government of the arrangements it had to make to hold the elections as the term of the elected gram panchayats would expire on August 1.

He told the court that the SEC had made all arrangements including publishing the voter lists of 12,751 gram panchayats. The commission required 3,26,561 staff to conduct the elections and had held meetings with the chief secretary to make arrangements. Mr Kumar said the HC in June directed the government to conduct the elections but issue notification only after completion of the enumeration of BC voters, publishing the figures and then reserving seats for the community.

Mr Kumar brought to the notice of the court that after the HC direction the commission had written to the state government to finalise the reservations not exceeding the 50-per cent cap. He said in the Kishan Singh Tomar case, the Supreme Court had directed that the Election Commission can approach the High Court if the state government does not cooperate to conduct the election even after the expiry of the term of the elected bodies.