Goa to move Supreme Court over ST reservation before 2027 polls

The Goa government will petition the Supreme Court to revive the Scheduled Tribe reservation process. The outcome could determine whether four seats are reserved before the 2027 Assembly elections.

In Short

• Bombay High Court barred notification of estimated Scheduled Tribe population figures
• Judges insisted population determination await the first official Census after 2026
• The disputed estimate placed tribal residents at 9.9 per cent

The Goa government is set to approach the Supreme Court this week to clear the way for political reservation for Scheduled Tribes ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, officials told news agency Press Trust of India on Tuesday.

The government will challenge a Bombay High Court order that halted the process of identifying the state's tribal population. The court had restrained the Census Commissioner from notifying population estimates for Scheduled Tribes.

The Panaji bench of the High Court said the population figures could not be determined using any basis other than the first official Census conducted after 2026.

Goa NRI Commissioner Narendra Sawaikar, who was part of a state delegation that visited New Delhi, told PTI that the government would ask the Supreme Court to lift the stay. It would file a special leave petition by Wednesday.

A delegation comprising Goa Assembly Speaker Ganesh Gaonkar, Art and Culture Minister Ramesh Tawadkar and Sawaikar travelled to New Delhi on Monday to explore legal options. The visit followed concerns that the High Court order could stall the process of reserving Assembly seats for Scheduled Tribes.

A division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit S Jamsandekar issued the interim stay while hearing a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Act, 2025.

Parliament passed the law in August 2025, and it came into force in August 2026. It provides for determining Goa's Scheduled Tribe population and redrawing Assembly constituencies to enable political reservation for the community.

The court questioned the Census Commissioner's decision to assume that Scheduled Tribes accounted for 9.9 per cent of Goa's population based on the 2001 Census. The commissioner had also acknowledged that the available data did not allow an accurate assessment of the current population.

The bench noted that the Kunbi, Gauda and Velip communities were added to the Scheduled Tribes list in January 2003. The 2001 Census had recorded only 566 tribal people across Goa.

According to PTI, the interim order has created uncertainty over the proposal to reserve four Assembly constituencies for Scheduled Tribes before the 2027 elections. Tribal organisations and community leaders in Goa have long sought political reservation and representation in the state legislature, while the government is now seeking relief from the Supreme Court to continue the process.

- Ends