HC bench rejects poll petitions

The bench on Thursday stated that all elections petitions before the bench stand dismissed. Mathkari said he had tried to bring before the court the matter of reservations for SC/ST candidates in the panel formation using the 2001 Census. He had stated that Pune’s population had increased by 20 lakh,which in turn also increased the population of the SC/ST. “My argument was that the SC/ST population were denied their rights. I tried my best but the court has dismissed the petition,” said Mathkari after the verdict.

Mathkari had stated in his petition that as per the legal provisions,the latest published census figures of the city have to be considered for deciding the number of municipal wards and the reserved seats in them for Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). However,this was the draft census and not the actual figures.

The SEC had considered the provisional figures of Census 2011 of the city to decide the total number of seats in the PMC,which have increased from 144 to 152 on the basis of the increased population. However,he had said the SEC has considered the total number of SC and ST population decided in Census 2001,as the corresponding data of Census 2011 was not available.

SC and ST communities have to be given representation on the basis of share in population. As the SEC considered the figures of Census 2001,the increased population of these communities in the last decade have not been considered. He said the SEC should follow the law and consider only the data published in the gazette about the census.