Supreme Court stays cancellation of urban local body elections in Nagaland amid reservation controversy

The application sought the quashing of the SEC's March 30 notification cancelling the election programme and the setting aside of the Nagaland Municipal (Repeal) Act, 2023.

The petitioners have also sought direction from the Centre to ensure adequate central forces are sent to Nagaland prior to the elections in order to ensure the process is conducted peacefully.

The ULB elections in Nagaland have been long overdue, with the last polls having been held in 2004.

Elections were not conducted since then, first over the unresolved Naga peace talks, and then due to the 33 percent reservation for women issue, which the tribal bodies have opposed.

The Nagaland Municipal Act 2001, which was amended later, made 33 percent reservation of seats for women mandatory for holding the ULB elections, as directed by the Supreme Court. However, the Nagaland Assembly passed a resolution to repeal the legislation, and in response, several prominent women's organizations in the state have protested.

The Naga Mothers' Association (NMA) organized a convention on the issue at Nagaland University in Kohima, in which several women's organizations participated. The two women MLAs of the state remained silent during the deliberations on the issue in the assembly, according to the NMA.

Representatives of the NDPP, BJP and NPF, besides the Naga Women Hoho Dimapur, Zeliangrong Mepui Organisation and Pochury Mothers Association, also participated in the program.

In 2017, clashes between tribal bodies and the government left two people dead and several injured, leading to the Kohima Municipal Council office and adjoining government offices in the state capital and elsewhere being set on fire. The government had withheld the decision to conduct the elections after the clashes.

On March 9, 2022, representatives from across the Naga society unanimously agreed that elections to ULBs should be held with 33 percent reservation for women.