HC summons Haryana chief electoral officer
PETITIONER, A RESIDENT OF JHAJJAR, ARGUES THAT SINCE THERE IS NO POPULATION OF SCHEDULED TRIBES IN STATE, THERE IS THE NEED TO RESERVE 17 SEATS FOR SCs
CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday summoned chief electoral officer (CEO) of Haryana on a plea challenging delimitation of constituencies in the state.
The high court bench of justice Rajan Gupta has asked the chief electoral officer to remain present on Friday.
The petitioner, Bijender Singh, a resident of Jhajjar, had argued that there being no population of scheduled tribes in Haryana, it is required to reserve 17 seats for scheduled castes.
As per Article 332(3) of the Constitution of India, such reservation for scheduled castes has to be in that assembly segment which has dominant caste population of scheduled castes.
However, delimitation of commission has made reservation arbitrarily by reserving one seat in almost every district without taking into consideration the ratio of castes, population and the dominant caste factor.
‘DEFEATS THE VERY OBJECTIVE OF RESERVATION’
“For instance the seat of assembly constituency of Jhajjar has been kept reserved for scheduled castes where dominant castes are Jats and Yadavs. In Faridabad, none of the assembly seat is reserved for scheduled castes where population of the scheduled castes is very high. This defeats the very objective of reservation of seats for the scheduled castes,” the court was told. While summoning the chief electoral officer, the court observed that a question arises whether any consistent guideline or parameter was being followed by the delimitation commission while making reservation of the assembly constituencies.
‘PETITION NOT MAINTAINABLE IN HC’
As the respondent state had argued that the petition was not maintainable before the high court, the court observed, “In this context, the court has already expressed its intention to examine the maintainability of the petition. It may also be necessary to go into the aspect of objective of reservation of seats in view of provisions of Article 332(3) with reference to constituency assembly debates.”