In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision quashing a municipal reservation order in Goa that failed to comply with constitutional requirements for women's reservation. However, the Court made a landmark declaration that State Election Commissioners must be independent of the State Government, as mandated by Article 243K. The appointment of the Law Secretary as SEC was deemed unconstitutional. The Court clarified that when calculating reservation percentages yielding fractions (e.g., 6.67 seats for one-third), such fractions must be rounded up to whole numbers, not ignored. The judgment elaborates on the scope of judicial review in elections: courts can intervene before elections commence or to facilitate (not obstruct) the election process, despite Article 243ZG(b)'s bar on interfering once elections begin. The Court extended the deadline for completing elections to 30 April 2021 and directed the State to appoint an independent SEC."
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