Refusing to interfere in policy decisions, the Bombay High Court on Wednesday said it was not inclined to grant a stay on the upcoming civic elections in Maharashtra.
A division bench of Justices S A Bobade and Mridula Bhatkar was hearing petitions filed by citizens Rupesh Andhari and Sanjay Tahiliani challenging the notification issued in August last year, in which the Maharashtra Election Commission issued a ward-formation draft within the limits of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allegedly based on the 2001 census.
The petitioners have contended that the wards in 11 other municipal bodies in the state have been formed based on census data of 2011. "The election commission has already issued a notification yesterday declaring schedule of the elections. At this stage we (court) cannot grant stay on the elections. We do not see this issue with such a gravity that the elections have to be stalled," the court said while posting the matter for final hearing and disposal.
Andhari's counsel Anil Sakhre told the court that the fact that there has been a fall in the population in the city and a rise in the suburbs should have been taken into account while forming wards. "Population census of 2011 is available then why has figures of 2001 been used," the lawyer argued. According to the petition, the draw for declaration of ward-wise reservation should have been conducted after determining number of wards, fixing ward limits and earmarking number of reserved seats based on the latest Census figures, as mandated by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.
The petition points out that the State Election Commission (SEC) had used figures of Census 2011 for conducting elections in neighbouring Thane and Ulhasnagar, whereas ward-wise reservations for civic elections in Mumbai were drawn on the basis of census 2001 figures. Polling for ten municipal corporations, including Mumbai will be held on February 16 and 27 Zilla Parishads across the state will exercise their franchise on February 7.
