Gujarat High Court slams Gujarat State Government in respect of reservation for weaker sections in power.

While deciding the issue, raised in writ proceedings by the petitioners Nathabhai Zala and Mohan Vaghela of Thoriyali and Khodapipar villages in Rajkot district after the Gujarat state government failed to respond to ensure reserved seats for the backward classes in their respective villages, A division bench of the Hon. Mr. justice VM Sahai and Mr. Justice AJ Desai awfully criticized against the Gujarat state government yesterday and has ordered for a fresh panchayati elections be held on December 29 in these villages after seats are reserved for the backward community members, with a specific direction to all the concerned departments, including the state election commission to ensure that detailed list of these "lesser" populated villages is prepared and ensured that every village in the state has a seat reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Division Bench observed that the weaker sections were prevented from providing effective leadership as dominant sections captured power and used it for their ends. This led to loss of faith in grassroot democracy. As per a media report, since decades the Gujarat state government had avoided reserving seats for representatives of these backward classes in close to 5,000 villages panchayat citing "inadequate populations" of these villages, out of 12000 villages of the state.In accordance with the provisions of article 243 B of our constitution, the reservation for these weaker classes, be it a lesser or a sizeable populated village is mandatory. The division bench has slammed the Gujarat state government, setting up a landmark mandate against the state government, now to ensure that every village in Gujarat has a seat reserved for representatives from backward communities.