IDUKKI: The High Court has issued a notice to the Election Commission (EC) on a petition opposing the commission’s decision to keep Devikulam as a Scheduled Caste reserved assembly seat for the past 63 years. The commission has been asked to respond by January 27.
According to Infent Thomas, a Congress leader who filed the petition, the change of status should have happened after three terms. “The seat was not reserved in 1957. However, it became an SC reserved seat in the next election and has remained so for these many years, despite there being rules which specify that any assembly constituency can’t remain reserved for over three consecutive terms,” he said.
Infent said that 52.7 per cent of voters in the 12 grama panchayats constituting Devikulam assembly constituency belong to the general category, while only 27.8 per cent of the voters are in the SC category and 10.4 per cent in the ST category.
According to him, the region is falling back on development as several leaders from Munnar and not Devikulam contest from the seat. “If steps had been initiated during the 2016 delimitation process, Devikulam would have ceased to be an SC reserved seat,” he said.