BENGALURU: The State Election Commission (SEC) moved the Karnataka High Court against the state government for passing the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act, 2021, which it claimed withdraws its powers to fix the number of seats, carry out the delimitation exercise, fix reservation of seats and constitute the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Delimitation Commission.
Hearing the petition questioning the legality of the amendment, a division bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum on Monday issued notices to the Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation and Principal Secretary of the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.
SEC prayed the court to direct the state government to issue final notifications on delimitation and reservation for all territorial constituencies of all taluk and zilla panchayats in the state. It said that the state government, by proposing to wait till the completion of new delimitation and fresh reservation exercise, has created a vacuum in local self-government and governance of panchayats.
It appealed to the court to declare the Act published in the gazette on September 18, 2021 as unconstitutional.Transitory provisions under Section 12 of the Act has brought to naught the entire exercise of delimitation and reservation that was carried out and completed by State Election Commission for all taluk and zilla panchayats.