Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 20: The future of those who got elected as presidents and vice presidents of town municipalities, city municipalities and town panchayats and celebrated their elevations have reasons to worry. Their future is in limbo now as the high court (HC) has quashed the notification prescribing reservation criteria for the posts of the president and vice-president of these bodies. The court has held that the government had not properly followed the rotation system when preparing the list. It has ordered the government to issue another notification within four weeks as per rules.

At the request of the government, which said that it plans to go on an appeal against this order, the court gave it ten days’ time to do so by staying operation of its current order till then. If the government fails to justify its notification when its appeal is placed before a division bench of the high court, elections for the posts of the president and vice president of 276 local bodies will have to be held again. In most of the bodies, the elected representatives have taken over power, and now they are a worried lot. At the same time, a new hope has kindled in the minds of those who went to court, thinking that they have faced injustice.

The government had issued notification on October 8, fixing reservation criteria for the posts of the presidents and vice presidents, high court judge, Justice R Devadas, cancelled this notification. Now the future of the elected representatives hinges on either the order that the division bench will pass over the validity of the notification, or the interim order.

Twenty-five separate petitions filed by the elected representatives and aspirants for the posts of the president and vice president etc of Hassan, Arasikere, Koppal, Sidlaghatta Harihar municipality, Bagepalli in Chikkaballapur, Somwarpet town in Kodagu district etc had questioned the notification prescribing criteria fixed for the elections for these posts. The bench had completed its hearing and reserved orders which were announced on Thursday. The bench upheld all the petitions.

The order affects 117 town municipalities, 59 city municipalities and 100 town panchayats. The bench had formed a committee of three advocates to verify the reservation rotation. It had stayed the election. Upholding the appeal of the government, the bench had thereafter permitted the state to elect presidents and vice presidents for municipalities, duly clarifying that the outcome will be subject to the final order over the pending petitions.

Urban development minister B A Basavaraju, said that the reservation criteria was done based on recommendations of a committee. He said that discussions will be held again by the committee as per the court order.