Court grills Gujarat on civic polls
By IANSWednesday, June 23, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat High Court Wednesday directed the state government to tell under which provisions of the constitution it was empowered to notify seats for municipal corporation wards.
The division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Akil Kureshi sought answers from the state government and the state election commission in this regard over a public interest litigation (PIL).
The court queried the counsels on the question of law and wanted to know as to who would decide on the number of seats in a ward.
If the state’s answer is the state government then under which provisions of the constitution the state is claiming these powers.
The court asked counsel for the state: “Prima facie it appears that the constitution has empowered you to notify territorial areas but the composition of the wards is not delegated to you. It lies with the constitution.”
The bench was hearing a PIL that challenged election process of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.
Petitioner Pankajsinh Waghela has challenged the election process of the civic body. Counsel for the petitioner, Yatin Oza, submitted before the court that the election process was in violation of generally accepted principle of “one man-one vote”.
While seeking the answers from state counsel, the court allowed a day’s time to them to file their reply and adjourned the matter. The hearing in the case has been posted for Thursday.
