Bombay HC temporarily stays sarpanch elections in six districts – Hindustan Times

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the district collectors of Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli, Solapur, Nashik and Pune districts to hear 31 candidates, who had approached HC after they found that the reservation criteria for filing nominations forms for the elections were not in conformity with section 30 of the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act, 1958 and the rule 246 of Bombay Village Panchayats (Sarpanch and Upa-Sarpanch) Election Rules, 1964.

The candidates claimed that though they had objected to it they were not given a hearing. The HC also stayed the elections that were to be held in these districts till February 16.

A division bench of justice SJ Kathawalla and justice Vinay Joshi, while hearing the 31 petitions filed by aggrieved candidates, was informed that as per section 30 and rule 246 of the said Acts the rota rule had to be followed while permitting the filing of nominations.

Advocate Sarang Aradhye for one of the petitioners submitted that while there were eight reservation categories, each of them would have an opportunity to contest the election every five years on a rotation basis, implying that each category would have a chance to hold the post of sarpanch and there would be no reservation for anyone category in perpetuity. He submitted that the state government had adopted the rotation policy in 1995 and since then the rota system was in place.

Aradhye further submitted that however in some districts the rota had not been followed and even though the candidates had raised their objection before the Tahsildar, it was not heeded and hence the petitions.

After hearing the submissions, the bench stayed elections which were to be held within 30 days of their announcement on January 29, 2020, and directed the collectors of the said districts to consider the petitions as representations, give the candidates a hearing and decide on the same before February 16 and disposed of the petitions.