MARGAO
Uncertainty loomed over political reservation to Scheduled Tribes before upcoming Lok Sabha polls even as experts differed and a tribal delegation planned to call on the President of India Droupadi Murmu during her visit to Goa, seeking her intervention.
Questioning the Centre’s stand that the demand for political reservations for the tribal communities in Goa will be considered only after the 2026 census, High Court lawyer, Adv Cleofato Coutinho has asserted that holding elections and reservation of seats has nothing to do with a Census exercise.
Adv Coutinho further said it is left for the President of India to notify the reservation of seats for the three ST tribal communities.
“The elections are conducted by the Election Commission. Accordingly, there will have to be a notification reserving certain seats. That is the Central government’s job, and this exercise has got nothing to do with the census exercise”, he said.
He added. “The very purpose of census is that it gives a count of the people who are there. Right now, we have the figures of the ST population in the State of Goa based on the 2011 census. When the 2011 census is available, there is no reason why the government should wait for the 2026 census to take place to give effect to the political reservations for the ST communities”.
Adv Cleofato sought to know whether the next election will wait if the 2026 census is not ready by that time, saying there is no relation between census and elections and reservation of seats.
Saying that the Delimitation of constituencies was done in Goa over a decade ago, he pointed out that certain changes were brought about such as Canacona becoming one Assembly constituency from the previous two.
When asked to comment on reports that the ruling dispensation is delaying the issue of giving political reservations to the ST Communities to save the MLAs, whose seats might be eligible for ST reservation, Adv Cleofato said this is quite possible since the reservation is bound to have an impact on the present MLAs in a couple of constituencies.
Referring to the Centre’s rejection of the demand for political reservations before 2026, Adv Cleofato said “After the 2026 census, there might be a fresh delimitation exercise and there’s nothing wrong in that. But, there’s no rationale behind the Centre’s stand that reservations for the Goa ST communities will be considered only after the 2026 census. They are entitled for the reservations as per the 2011 census”.
He added: There is a fear that Parliamentary constituencies would undergo a change in the country. It is feared that southern States will get lesser seats than the States in North and central India because of the population”.
The Centre has last week pointed out that the readjustment of parliamentary and legislative Assembly constituencies is undertaken in accordance with the Delimitation Act, 2002, by a Delimitation Commission, while saying that the next delimitation exercise, including the number of seats to be reserved for the SCs and STs, would only take place through a Delimitation Commission after the relevant figures of the census taken after the year 2026 are published.
