With polls approaching, govt faces the task of resolving the reservation issue without delay
With less than three months to go before the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect for the next Assembly election, uncertainty remains over the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community in the forthcoming Assembly polls.
In a major setback to the implementation of reservation, the High Court of Bombay at Goa last week restrained the Census Commissioner from notifying ST population figures for the state. A division bench granted interim relief in a writ petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Act, 2025. The legislation, passed by Parliament on August 13, 2026, came into force on August 6, 2026.
The HC held that the petitioner had established an arguable case that the 2025 Act violates Articles 170(3) and 332 of the Constitution, which freeze constituency delimitation until figures from the first Census taken after 2026 are published. The High Court also said, “If there was no manner for the Census Commissioner to be able to even ascertain or estimate the population figures as required by Section 3, before publishing the same, there could be no justification for presuming the proportion of population of Scheduled Tribe community to the population of the state being 9.9% at present, when the figure pertains to the year 2001 Census.”
The HC said that, until the petition is disposed of, the Census Commissioner is “restrained from issuing any notification or notifying in the Gazette of India” the figures referred to in its September 10 communication to the Ministry of Law and Justice. It also restrained the Census Commissioner from notifying “any other population figures either ascertained or estimated on any basis other than on the basis of the first Census after 2026.”
The dispute stems from the September 10 communication from the Assistant Registrar General to the Ministry of Law and Justice. In that letter, the Census Commission conceded that it was unable to ascertain or estimate current ST population figures from the available data. However, the authority proceeded to ‘reasonably presume’ that the ST population proportion remained at 9.9% of the state’s total population, relying on 2001 Census data after the Kunbi, Gauda and Velip communities were added in 2003. The HC noted that issuing an unverified notification would inflict irreversible harm.
As per Section 3 of the Act, the Census Commissioner is required to ascertain or estimate Goa’s ST population and its proportion to the state’s total population, accounting for changes to the ST list since the last Census. Section 3 further states that the figures must be notified in the Gazette of India, replacing earlier Census figures, and will be final and cannot be challenged in any court.
On Friday, tribal leaders accused the government of hatching a conspiracy to delay political reservation for STs in Goa. Under pressure, the state government has decided to approach the Supreme Court to safeguard the process of granting political reservation to the ST community in the Goa Legislative Assembly, following an interim order passed by the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday to discuss the legal implications of the High Court’s interim order. Sawant has reaffirmed the government’s resolve to ensure political reservation for the ST community ahead of the forthcoming 2027 Goa Legislative Assembly elections. However, for now, members of the tribal community are angry. Against this backdrop, it remains to be seen how the government will resolve the imbroglio.
