Punjab govt to move Apex Court against HC orders on MC elections
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ November 7,2024
The Punjab government has decided to knock the doors to Supreme Court against the Punjab and Haryana high court’s first order dated October 19 and second order this week, directing it to declare the poll schedule for five municipal corporations (MCs) and 42 municipal councils/nagar panchayats within 10 days.
The elections for the five municipal corporations of Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Phagwara and Ludhiana and around 42 municipal councils have been pending for the last two years.
The chief minister consulted the top lawyers on the possibility of challenging the high court order and finally decided to challenge the high court orders in Supreme Court.
“The state government will put forward a point that the delimitation process is going on in the municipality areas and it will be unfair to conduct the election before the completion of the process” said local bodies minister Dr Ravjot Singh
Punjab govt to move Apex Court against HC orders on MC elections. Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 19, had directed the Punjab Election Commission and the state government to start the process of holding polls in municipalities and municipal corporations within 15 days without conducting a delimitation exercise and after the completion of 15 days, the court again directed the state govt to issue orders within 10 days.
The bench passed the order while hearing two petitions — filed by Beant Kumar alias Beant Kinger and Parbodh Chander Bali — which pointed out that in 42 municipal councils and five municipal corporations — Amritsar, Phagwara, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana — elections were pending.
The court had said, “The constitutional mandate requires that elections to constitute a municipality shall be held before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution as per Article 243U (3)(b).
“According to this mandate, elections to the municipalities must be completed before the end of their five-year term. Article 243U(3)(b) provides the maximum time limit for holding elections, stipulating that elections must take place within six months from the date of dissolution of the municipality,” it had said.
