Orissa HC clears deck for Sambalpur civic body polls; fresh notification within 6 weeks

Orissa High Court set the stage on Wednesday for the upcoming Sambalpur Municipal Corporation elections by annulling an election notification issued in 2015. The court has directed the State government to publish a fresh notification within the next six weeks.

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The ruling comes amid disputes over the reservation policy applied in the 2015 notification, particularly regarding the 50 percent cap on ward reservations, which sparked considerable controversy. The court has emphasised that the new notification should be based strictly on reservation rules.

The 2015 notification faced legal challenges, leading to the current court intervention. This development ensures that municipal elections proceed in compliance with the legal and reservation frameworks, paving the way for a fair electoral process in Sambalpur.

Sambalpur Municipal Corporation was formed in 2013. It had headed for a ward delimitation drive in 2015 but a local activist named Ajay Mohanty then moved the Orissa High Court seeking a stay on the order of the civic body to reserve all five wards in Hirakud. Due to the earlier development, elections to the civic body had been put on hold since 2017.

Speaking on the issue, Prasanna Sahu, an associate of the complainant, had previously said, “Ajay Mohanty has prayed to the High Court against ward delimitation of the corporation, which blatantly ignored the rights of general category people.”

Slamming the State (BJD-led) government over failing to handle the situation carefully to ensure quicker elections in Sambalpur, Girish Patel, the District BJP President of Sambalpur, had said, “The (erstwhile) government feared that if an election is held right now, the BJP will win the corporation. And without the public representatives, the government is finding it easier to loot the public money by corruption with the help of bureaucrats.”

However, BJD’s Raseswari Panigrahi had refuted the allegations of the BJP and said, “We cannot conduct an election here because the issue is still sub-judice. I am sure the case will be disposed of quickly and the election will be held soon.”