No Data Regarding Exact Population: Kerala High Court Holds Notifications Declaring Lakshadweep's Gram Panchayat Constituencies Ultra Vires

The Kerala High Court recently held the notifications declaring the local area comprising villages; the number of wards; and calling for objections to the proposed delimitation of Gram Panchayat constituencies/ wards, issued by the Lakshadweep Administrator and the Election Commission (EC) for the Lakshadweep Village (Dweep) Panchayat elections, as premature and ultra vires the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution of India and the Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulations, 2022. Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V. passed the above order on the ground that the same had been done without ascertaining the population of the territorial area of the Gram Panchayats that had been constituted. The Court thereby directed the respondent administration and EC to initiate expeditious steps to ascertain the population of the territorial area of the Gram Panchayats in terms of Section 2(t) of LPR, 2022, before proceeding with Exhibit P6 notification and conducting the election to the Gram Panchayats constituted as per the said notification.Factual MatrixThe petition was filed by a person who claimed to be the presently elected Chairperson of the Village (Dweep) Panchayat, Kavaratti. He challenged the notification issued by the Administrator of Lakshadweep, declaring the local areas comprising of villages specified in the notification to be Panchayat areas for the purposes of Lakshadweep Panchayat Regulations, 2022 (hereinafter 'LPR 2022') as ultra vires the provisions of Part IX of the Constitution of India and Sections 8 and 12 of LPR, 2022..The LPR 1994 had initially been promulgated by the President of India for the establishment of Village (Dweep) Panchayat, and District Panchayat in Lakshadweep. The Village Panchayat for each of the 10 islands, as per the petitioner, was coextensive with the territorial area of the respective islands. The proviso to Section 8(2) provides the distribution of number of seats vis a vis the population of the Village (Dweep) Panchayat. The more populous islands were also accordingly, allotted more seats than the less populated ones. It is the case of the petitioner that with the promulgation of LPR 2022 by the President, which came into effect from September 26, 2022, radical changes had been brought about. The island wise constitution of Village (Dweep) Panchayat was done away with, and the Administrator was vested with the power to declare any local area to be a Panchayat area. The Administrator was also conferred the power to conduct an enquiry and issue a notification declaring a local area comprising a Village or any combination of Villages to be a Panchayat area, and also to constitute a Gram Sabha by name for each Panchayat area, petitioner said. The Administrator accordingly, issued a notification bringing into effect as many as 18 separate Panchayat areas in place of the erstwhile 10 Village (Dweep) Panchayat. The petitioner alleges that as per the said notification, only 2 Panchayat areas, namely, Kalpeni and Kiltan, were coextensive with the territorial area of the said islands, in contrast to the previous norm. The petitioner further claimed that the Administrator had framed the Lakshadweep Panchayats (Election Procedure) Rules, 2022 (hereinafter 'LEP Rules 2022').As per the Rules 2022, it has been stipulated that the EC is to distribute the seats assigned to each Gram Panchayat and District Panchayat to Single Member Territorial Wards and delimit them on the basis of latest census figures, pursuant to which the EC issued a draft notification for delimitation of the Wards and the 18 Gram Panchayats.It was submitted by the Petitioner that the number of seats allotted for a Gram Panchayat can be determined by the Administrator only with respect to the population of the Territorial area of such Gram Panchayats, as ascertained at the last preceding census. The petitioner pointed out that the respondents had relied on the Island wise census instead undertaken in the year 2011, instead of using the population data of the Panchayat areas of the newly constituted Gram Panchayat. He thus averred that the impugned notifications by the Administrator were premature. It was further pointed out that reservations for women were also not granted through this exercise, thereby violating Section 12(8) LPR, 2022.The petitioner also sought for the issuance of directions to the EC, Lakshadweep, to keep the proceedings for conducting elections to the Gram Panchayat constituted as per the impugned notifications, in abeyance, until such time as the population for the territorial areas of the Gram Panchayat constituted in terms of the said notification were ascertained as per Section 2(t) of LPR, 2022. Arguments of the RespondentsIt was argued that the petitioner has no locus standi in this case since no legal or constitutional rights had been violated. It was pointed out that the Administration had given due regard to the census data while carrying out the delimitation exercise. It was submitted that the...

No Data Regarding Exact Population: Kerala High Court Holds Notifications Declaring Lakshadweep's Gram Panchayat Constituencies Ultra Vires

Navya Benny

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