CUTTACK: In a significant development that could pave the way for the long-pending urban local body (ULB) elections in Sambalpur, the Orissa High Court on Wednesday quashed the 2015 notification issued by the state Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department regarding reservation of wards for the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC).
Justice RK Patnaik, while delivering the verdict, directed the H&UD department to issue a fresh notification within six weeks, ensuring that the total reservation of wards does not exceed the 50 per cent limit as mandated by law.
The impugned notification, dated February 25, 2015, had come under legal scrutiny after a writ petition was filed by Ajay Kumar Mohanty, a resident of ward No 4 of Burla. Mohanty had challenged the reservation and delimitation process on the grounds that the combined reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Backward Classes (BC), and women exceeded the permissible cap of 50 per cent.
Taking cognisance of the petition, the high court had issued a stay order on April 2, 2015, effectively halting the electoral process for the newly-constituted municipal corporation. As a result, no ULB elections have been held in Sambalpur for over 12 years, since the last one took place in 2008 when it was still a municipality.
Sambalpur was upgraded to a municipal corporation in 2014, incorporating the Hirakud and Burla notified area councils (NACs), along with seven gram panchayats (GPs) from Dhankauda block and five GPs from Maneswar block.
The 2015 notification had proposed the final reorganisation of the corporation into 41 wards, with a significant number of seats reserved for SC, ST, BC, and female candidates, including 50 per cent of total seats reserved for women across all categories.