Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday asked the State government to withdraw its notification on the reservation of seats for panchayat elections to be held early next year.
As per reports, the state government informed the High Court that it will withdraw the notification issued for reservation of seats for the three-tier Panchayat elections and issue a fresh notification regarding the same on December 27.
The High Court, in its order, has also directed the State government to complete the election process by March 8 next year.
On November 16, the State Election Commission (SEC) had issued a notification on the reservation of seats for the panchayat polls. As per the notification, only 104 seats out of the 853 seats are reserved for backward class citizens (BCC). However, not a single seat has been reserved for candidates from BCC in 14 districts.
Challenging this, the petitioner had prayed the High Court seeking directions for reservation for SC & ST candidates and quashing the notification issued earlier by the Panchayati Raj department.
The deadlines for receiving complaints and suggestions is January 3 and on January 5 all the complaints will be resolved. The State will submit the final list on the reservation of seats to the SEC on January 7.
