NT Reporter
Panaji
Tribal Welfare Minister Ramesh Tawadkar has said the state government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court on ST political reservation challenging the High Court of Bombay at Goa’s order.
Separate petitions are also expected from the central government and the ST community, Tawadkar said, adding that a delegation held discussions with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta in Delhi to address the legal and technical hurdles surrounding the issue.
Expressing confidence that the matter would move forward well before the 2027 Assembly elections, the minister said the government was pursuing the legal process to resolve the issue.
In a major setback to the government’s efforts to re-align Assembly seats before the 2027 elections, the High Court of Bombay at Goa last week restrained the census commissioner from notifying scheduled tribe population figures for the state.
A division bench of Justice Valmiki Menezes and Justice Amit S Jamsandekar had granted interim relief in a writ petition.
The plea was filed by Edwin Lucio Fernandes, challenging the constitutional validity of the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Act, 2025.
The court had held that the petitioner established an arguable case that the 2025 Act violates Articles 170(3) and 332 of the Constitution of India, which freeze constituency delimitation until figures from the first census taken after 2026 are published.
