Gauhati HC disposes Silchar petition on Municipal Corporation elections

Silchar, Sept. 25: In a development, related to the much-discussed issue of elections to the formation of the Silchar Municipal Corporation, local MLA Dipayan Chakraborty informed that the major hurdle towards conducting the elections has been done with by the Gauhati High Court.

A closer look into the issue revealed that a writ petition was filed on 19 January 2023 at the Gauhati High Court against the constitution of the Silchar Municipal Corporation.

In this regard, the Silchar MLA informed that he has received a phone call from Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma who had conveyed that the petition has been disposed on September 24 by the single bench at the Gauhati High Court.

"Honourable Chief Minister sir in his recent visit to Barak Valley had assured us that he would gauge the complications related to the case against elections to form the Silchar Municipal Corporation. On Tuesday, I had received the information from CM sir regarding the disposal of the case. But, the manner of disposal is yet to be understood. However, the move has eased the process of elections and I firmly believe that the State Election Commission will discuss with the State Government to fix the schedule of Municipal Corporation elections,” the MLA said.

It may be recalled that following the delimitation of municipal wards and formation of proposed 42 wards for the corporation, some associations of Madhurband and Dudhpatil areas had filed the writ petition at the Gauhati High Court.

Then Assam Governor, Jagdish Mukhi, had constituted a five-member delimitation board for the Silchar Municipal Corporation as per the provisions of Assam Municipal Corporation Act, 2022. The board was constituted to work in expediting the ward-based delimitation process.

The Delimitation Board of Silchar Municipal Corporation was formed with the District Commissioner of Cachar as the Chairman.