Calling the Nagaland government’s recent action to evade the urban local body (ULB) elections in the state an “ingenious method”, the Supreme Court has issued a contempt notice to state Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio for not honouring its order. The apex court has warned that if those elections are not held as per the constitutional mandate for reservation of seats for women, it would take the matter to its “logical conclusion”.
A two-member bench of the SC comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and Aravind Kumar has also asked the Union government to intervene and advise the state accordingly.
In April 2022, the Nagaland government had told the SC that it would hold the ULB polls and follow the mandatory 33% reservation for women candidates. The decision, the Rio government had stated then, had been reached after holding consultative meetings with tribal bodies who were opposed to it citing customary laws and Article 371 A of the constitution meant for the northeastern state.
In 2017, Nagaland had witnessed violence prior to the ULB polls after the SC’s order to hold the voting with reservations for women candidates was being implemented – leading to the indefinite cancellation of the polls. The polls were last held in 2004.
Even after the assurance given to the court in April 2022, nothing moved, leading the SC to slam the state government in July 2022 over its failure to follow its order.
This past March 14, the SC issued a fresh order directing the state government and the state election commission to hold the polls, highlighting once again that the implementation of the 74th amendment to the constitution was not optional but obligatory.
Accordingly, the state election commission told the court that it would hold the polls on May 16. As per that schedule, the notification was to be filed between April 3 and 10 for the elections to be held for three municipal councils – Kohima, Dimapur and Mokokchung – and 36 town councils. However, the polls had to be cancelled by the Election Commission this March 30 as the state assembly, supporting the tribal bodies’ stand on the matter, had repealed the Nagaland Municipality Act, 2001, in violation of the SC’s March 14 order. In 2006, the Act was repealed to include 33% reservation for women candidates in the civic polls as per a SC order.
This April 17, hearing the appeal filed by the NGO, People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) – that the state government had repealed the Act and thereby should attract contempt action – the bench said an “ingenious method” had been adopted to evade the undertaking given to the court by repealing the Act. The bench thereby issued a contempt notice to the chief minister and asked the Election Commission to hold the polls as per the schedule. This April 5, the court had noted that tinkering with the local elections would be considered “in breach of the orders by the court”.
Significantly, the court had stated that there was nothing to show in whatever was submitted by the state government to the court that there should not be reservation for women and that this seemed more of a move to thwart equality. A PTI report quoted the court saying, “Every society had a period of time where there was male domination…if sometimes, the political dispensation does not do anything, then it needs a push from the judiciary”.
The report said when the state’s counsel raised apprehension about violence in the polls, the court remarked, “For 18 years, you have not been able to do it (conduct elections to the ULBs). For every elections, due to threat of violence, the elections should not happen?” The bench further asked, “Eighteen years are not long enough for you? How can the court countenance a situation that despite the longest rope being given, every time it happens?”
Stating that “wou cannot keep everyone happy”, Justice Kaul observed, “Frankly, to my mind, it is an issue of women empowerment.”
“You seem to say this is not a men and women issue but to us it appears to be a men and women issue. For how long will this section of society (women) wait?” the bench asked the state counsel.
The bench has asked additional solicitor general K.M. Nataraj, present on behalf of the Union government, to “put on record” within the next two weeks “the stand of the union government on whether the constitutional mandate of one-third reservation in the municipality and town council elections, in the opinion of the central government, can be violated by Nagaland.”
