SC stay on local body polls: Guj govt to consult legal experts

The Gujarat government today said it will consult legal experts after the Supreme Court stayed elections to the local bodies in the state.
The elections to 253 municipalities, 208 taluka (tehsil) panchayats, 26 district panchayats and six municipal corporations are expected to be held in October.
However, the Supreme Court today stayed the operation of Gujarat High Court order which had dismissed a petition challenging the four-councillors-per ward provision.
Gujarat Health Minister and government spokesperson Nitin Patel said the government will take appropriate action.
"Someone had approached the court and contended that there should be only one representative per ward....System of four members per ward came into place after the Gujarat government decided to reserve 50 per cent seats for women recently; two seats for men and two for women candidates."

"We are now studying the order. We will consult legal experts and then take decision," Patel said.

The apex court's direction came on the plea of four Vadodara residents, supported by Congress leader Narendra Ravat.
"All over India, one representative is elected from one ward. While in Gujarat there is a provision of four per ward. Among these, two are reserved for women....These two elected women representatives will always remain in the shadow of two male members," said Ravat.
"Our argument was that the real purpose of uplift of women is not served. So the SC stayed the polls and issued notice to the state asking why the multi-member ward election system should not be scrapped," Ravat told reporters.

Gujarat Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki welcomed the order and said that BJP-led Gujarat government was usurping the rights of citizens by taking unconstitutional decisions using its majority.
"With this stay, the obnoxious electoral arrangement and delimitation by State Election Commission and the autocratic rule of BJP has been exposed," said Solanki in a statement.
"If the whole country has the arrangement of one representative per ward, why not in Gujarat? Accountability of the elected representative is enhanced by one-ward-one- representative system," he said.