Panaji: In a setback to the State Election Commission (SEC), the High Court of Bombay at Goa on Friday quashed and set aside the delimitation notification dated September 9, 2026, issued for 11 municipal councils in the state.
The High Court has mandated that official notification declaring municipal elections should be issued on February 19, 2027.
A division bench comprising Justice Valmiki Menezes and Justice Amit S Jamsandekar ruled that the election authority acted in “hot hurry” and in “complete breach” of statutory provisions mandating meaningful consultation with the state government prior to finalising ward boundaries.
A writ petition was instituted by Vasco resident Sudeep Dhargalkar, challenging the notification issued under Section 10(3) of the Goa Municipalities Act.
The petitioner contended that the SEC arbitrarily rejected 77 public objections concerning ward geographical contiguity across nine municipalities, including Mapusa, Margao, Mormugao, and Bicholim and published the final map without conducting the requisite state consultation.
Supporting the challenge, the state government confirmed that it was deprived of an effective consultation because the SEC failed to forward the public objections, electoral registration officer (ERO) field reports, maps, or detailed rejection reasons.
The High Court observed that after EROs submitted site reports on September 2, 2026, the SEC disposed of all 77 public objections within 24 hours on September 3.
On September 4, the SEC transmitted a truncated draft proposal to the government, completely omitting the underlying objections, ERO findings, and delimitation maps. Without awaiting any response or views from the government, the state poll panel published the final notification on September 9.
The High Court said, “These facts clearly demonstrate that the impugned notification has been published in complete breach of provisions of Section 10(3) of the Act mandating consultation with the government.”
Rapping the state poll panel for bypassing statutory checks and balances, the bench said, “The SEC thought it necessary to, in a hot hurry, publish the notification for delimitation without entering into any consultation with the government.”
The High Court also said, “We, however, cannot help but observe, that the SEC has disposed of 77 objections claiming that all reports of the EROs were also considered during this process, within a period of 24 hours from being placed before it.”
Relying on the Supreme Court precedent in State of J&K v. AR Zakki, the court underscored that statutory “consultation” mandates an effective exchange of mutual viewpoints and joint examination of merits, rather than a unilateral formality. The High Court ordered the SEC to hand over the complete record, including all 77 objections, ERO maps, and rejection orders, to the Goa government.
