The Supreme Court on Tuesday responded sharply to the Nagaland government over the delay to enforce reservation for women in the state’s urban local bodies.
The court said that an important aspect of gender equality seems to be getting postponed.
This comes after the apex court was hearing to the grievances made by the State election commission that the State Government is not responding to its request regarding changes in legislation to adopt the electoral rolls of Parliament in the Assembly Election for use in local body election.
The division bench of justices SK Kaul and M Sundresh granted six weeks of time to the Nagaland Government as to how it proposed to implement 33% reservation for women.
The petition was filed by People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and others seeking to hold the elections for all the Municipalities and Town Councils in Nagaland forthwith in accordance with Section 23A of the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act, 2006 and the Notification of the State Government.
The top court said, “We may also note that as per the State Election Commission the aforesaid processes may require six months time before taking up the election exercise.”
“We note with great regret that an important aspect of gender equality seems to be getting postponed and a decade has passed on that behalf,” it added.
The apex court said that on the perusal of note filed by the respondent, the Nagaland State Election Commission, it has been noted that “the report is once again a reflection on the lackadaisical attitude of the state government even in furtherance of assurances given to this Court apart from the fact of the legal mandate which they are required to follow.”
As per reports, while the counsel representing the State informed the court that the Committee has completed the exercise. But the counsel for the appellants expressed some reservation as to the result of the deliberation as according to him the recommendations are that the men will nominate the women, something naturally not acceptable.
The Counsel for the state submitted that due to his indisposition, he could not visit Nagaland and would like to be part of the final deliberations before the state government.
The apex court maintained that a date has to be pointed out on the next hearing for completing the exercise and within the next two weeks, the letters of the Election Commission must positively be responded to. The matter is listed for the next hearing on April 12.