Tripura: High court urges SEC, govt to hold polls to 587 village committees under tribal council within first week of November

The petitioners reasoned that though caretaker administrators were appointed, activities like sanitation, construction and maintenance of wells and tanks, and implementation of various beneficial schemes suffered in the villages under the tribal council.

In its submission, the SEC said elections cannot be held smoothly without proper preparation.

The Commission said there were 7,68,561 registered voters during the last ADC village committee polls in 2016. However, the number increased to 8,65,041 in the TTAADC elections held last year. The SEC argued that if the village committee elections were to be held now based on the 2016 electoral rolls, around one lakh voters would be deprived of their right to vote apart from the 21,000 new voters belonging to the migrant Bru community from Mizoram, who are being permanently resettled in Tripura.

The SEC added that at least 137 days would be required for completion of the entire village committee poll process.

In a second affidavit, the Commission mentioned October 26 as the tentative date for notification of polls and November 28 as the possible polling date.

After hearing both sides, the high court observed that the SEC’s plea was not devoid of merit, but it added that the Court cannot also be oblivious to the fact that election to the village committees is “long overdue” and holding of timely election is a basic feature of democracy.

The high court said, “Though we are not proposing any rigid time lines for this purpose, keeping in view SEC’s affidavits and the materials placed before us, we would expect SEC and state machinery to notify the date of election at the earliest and complete the entire process of Village Committee elections including declaration of results preferably within the first week of November, 2022.”

The Court order was met with enthusiastic response from Tripura ADC’s ruling TIPRA Motha party.

TIPRA Motha chief Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma took to social media and wrote, “Good morning TIPRA, YTF, TWF warriors get ready for the Village council elections. We win this election then there is no stopping our dream. Election will happen by October and results out latest by November. Our case in High court has been heard.”

In a separate post, he wrote: “The 33 village councils which are kept outside the TTAADC areas have to be brought under the TTAADC. We will ensure that we will not rest until this is not done. Don’t forget those who have been left behind!”

Motha spokesperson Anthony Debbarma said: “The polls to the ADC village committees are due for close to one and a half years. We submitted several representations on behalf of ADC authorities and the TIPRA Motha party but no step was taken. So, eventually we filed a petition in the high court.”

He added that the respondents tried to use the forthcoming Durga Puja and Diwali as an excuse to further defer the elections.

“This was done intentionally to deprive people under the TTAADC,” Debbarma said.

Welcoming the decision of the high court, Tripura BJP spokesperson Nabendu Bhattacharya said: “We were always ready for election. The polls could not be held due to some reasons including the pandemic. But we are fully ready to face elections whenever they are held.”

Describing the court order as positive, CPI(M) state secretary Jitendra Chaudhury said: “Village committees operate in areas where mostly marginalised people live. They need added attention, yet elections were delayed. It’s a war against democracy and contravenes the spirit of the Constitution. This is the character of the BJP. We welcome the positive spirit of democracy reflected in the high court order.”

He also flagged concerns of political violence and urged the high court to take steps to ensure that the elections are held peacefully and in a democratic manner.

Reacting to the order, Advocate General Siddhartha Shankar Dey said, “The state government and the State Election Commission apprised the Court that the election can’t be held before November. The Court expressed hope that the results would be declared within November this year.”