A day after the Supreme Court denied the Tripura Government extra time to reply to a petition filed by the ruling TIPRA Motha’s founder over the delay in conducting elections to village committees in the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), Chief Minister Manik Saha said on Tuesday that the state was ready for any election.
“We never said that we don’t want to conduct village committee polls… But it is being projected as if we are not interested in conducting the polls… We have placed the issue (before the authorities concerned). I can give further details after I get them. We are ready for all kinds of polls, be it village committee polls or TTAADC polls…” Saha told reporters at the Agartala Press Club.
The setback from the apex court came on Monday despite the government’s counsel seeking more time to conduct TTAADC village committee elections. The counsel, Shuvodeep Roy, appealed to the court to list the matter after two weeks.
In a letter to the Supreme Court’s registrar, he wrote, “The present case is coming up for hearing before a Bench comprising Hon’ble Mr. Chief Justice and Hon’ble Mr. Justice K. Vinod Chandran. In the present case, the undersigned has entered appearance on behalf of the Respondent—State of Tripura on 31.10.2025, and a Reply Affidavit has to be filed, for which complete instructions are awaited. As such, the undersigned shall be praying for an adjournment so that the matter may be listed after two weeks”.
Soon after the top court rejected the plea, TIPRA Motha founder Pradyot Kishore Debbarma took to social media, saying, “Today at the Supreme Court fighting for justice for the poor Tiprasa people whose democratic rights have been denied by not holding VC elections. It’s been almost 10 years since the last elections were held in the village council.”
Pradyot Kishore attended the Supreme Court hearing along with TTAADC Chief Executive Member Purna Chandra Jamatia, TTAADC Chairman Jagadish Debbarma, TIPRA Motha minister Brishaketu Debbarma, MLAs Philip Kumar Reang and Pathanlal Jamatia, and TTAADC member Dhirendra Debbarma.
The court had earlier directed the Election Commission of India and the State Election Commission (SEC) to immediately conduct overdue village committee polls under the Tripura Tribal Areas Automatic District Council Act 1994.
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A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice N V Anjaria asked the stakeholders to explain the reason for the delay in conducting the polls.
Tripura HC’s November 2022 deadline
The TTAADC spans across 70 per cent of the state’s geographical area but is distributed across almost all districts of the state. It houses over 30 per cent of the state’s tribal population hailing from 19 tribal communities and is locally administered through 587 village committees.
The elections to these committees, scheduled to be held by March 2021, were postponed earlier over the Covid pandemic, and an administrator was appointed under the supervision of the governor.
While several activists took the SEC to the Tripura High Court in 2022, and the court instructed the poll panel to hold the elections by the first week of November that year, the elections have yet to be held.
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In August 2022, the SEC issued a notification announcing guidelines for the TTAADC village committee elections.
