The matter is listed for the next hearing on April 12.
The Supreme Court Tuesday rapped the Nagaland government over the delay to enforce reservation for women in the state's urban local bodies, saying an important aspect of gender equality seems to be getting postponed.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and M Sundresh took note of the grievance made by the state election commission that the State Government is not responding to its request regarding changes in legislation to adopt the electoral rolls of Parliament in the Assembly Election for use in local body election.
“We have perused the note/synopsis filed by respondent No.3, the Nagaland State Election Commission. The report is once again a reflection on the lackadaisical attitude of the State Government even in furtherance of assurances given to this Court apart from the fact of the legal mandate which they are required to follow….
“We note with great regret that an important aspect of gender equality seems to be getting postponed and a decade has passed on that behalf,” the bench said.
The State Election Commission told the court that no response had been received in pursuance to the office letter to provide requisite additional fields in existing rolls to enable ward-wise segregation of voters.
“It is pointed out that the last summary revision was done in the year 2016 after which no summary revision has taken place till date leading to a huge gap in the old available data in the office as opposed to the present-day figures have not been updated for five years,” the court noted.
The bench said that it had accepted the assurances of the senior counsel for the state that they were at a threshold of completing the exercise and that a Committee had been formed to further the object of holding elections as per section 23A of the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act, 2006.
The counsel for the petitioners expressed some reservation as to the result of the deliberation as according to him the recommendations are that the men will nominate the women, something naturally not acceptable.
“We can only say it is reassuring for us that learned counsel for the State submits that it is not so because such a proposal to be made or accepted, it would not take us much time to quash the same,” the bench said.
The top court made it clear that a date has to be pointed out on the next date for completing the exercise and within the next two weeks, the letters of the Election Commission must positively be responded to.
The matter is listed for the next hearing on April 12.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and others seeking to hold the elections for all the Municipalities and Town Councils in Nagaland forthwith in accordance with Section 23A of the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act, 2006 and the Notification of the State Government.
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