A Tripura High Court division bench comprising Chief Justice Akil Kureshi and Justice SG Chattopadhyay on Tuesday disposed off two public interest litigations filed by one Apu Debbarma and a political party called Tripura People’s Front seeking early conduct of TTAADC polls after the state government informed the Court that it had no intentions to defer the elections anymore and the polls would be certainly conducted within May 17, 2020--the date when the second subsequent extension of governor’s rule would come to an end in the TTAADC.

Earlier the Court issued notices to the state election commission and the government of Tripura seeking its reply on the deferment of polls. Both the respondents filed separate affidavits in the Court on Tuesday clarifying their stands. The Affidavits that were supposed to be filed by January 05 last could not be done as newly appointed Advocate General Siddhartha Shankar Dey sought a week’s time to study the case which was later granted. As per the scheduled time, the case once again came up for hearing on Tuesday. 

The Advocate General assisted by senior government advocate Pradyot Dhar and government advocate Debalya Bhattacherjee learnt to have informed the Court that “the state government has no intention to defer the elections further”. The Advocate General who had also represented the election commission also informed the Court that it would initiate all the necessary steps required for the preparation of electoral rolls and holding the election within the due course of time. 

According to the affidavit submitted by the state government, the government had already taken all the necessary steps to conduct the polls of TTAADC in the month of March 2020. Even electoral officers were also appointed but owing to the sudden strike of Covid 19, the elections could not be held in time and the Governor exercising the powers conferred upon him as per the sub-section 2 of section 16 under 6th schedule of the constitution of India appointed administrator in the TTAADC. The first term of six months ended in November but the scare of Covid 19 was still not over yet and hence the term was once again extended. 

According to Advocate General Siddhartha Sankar Dey the Court was satisfied over the affidavits filed by both the respondents and did not specify the dates and schedule of the elections but instructed the government to hold the polls in time. The advocate General later said, “we have told the Court that the government had resolved to hold the elections before May 17th 2020 and the elections commission had categorically said  that by May 17 next the new elected committee of the TTAADC would take oath”. 

Apart from that, some significant inputs that had been learnt were that the electoral rolls for the assembly elections, a preliminary practice to prepare the electoral roll of the TTAADC, would be published within January 15 and the entire elections procedure would be announced after the budget session.