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Chandigarh mayor election: HC seeks fresh date from UT by January 23
Court was hearing AAP mayoral candidate Kuldeep Dhalor’s plea that challenged Chandigarh administration’s decision to defer the election till February 6 and further demanding that it be held within 24 hours
Acting on a plea from AAP, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday directed the UT administration to provide an “earliest possible date” for the rescheduled Chandigarh mayoral poll.
While deferring the poll on January 18, the administration had fixed the next date as February 6.
However, during the hearing on Saturday, the bench of justice Sudhir Singh and justice Harsh Bunger orally observed that such a long date for holding the polls was not acceptable.
Also read: After poll deferral, parties keeping councillors on the move
Initially, the court was stressing that the polls should be held before January 26. However, following arguments from both sides, the court asked UT’s counsel to apprise it by January 23 of the earliest possible date when polls can be held.
AAP’s mayoral candidate Kuldeep Dhalor had moved court, challenging UT’s decision to defer the election till February 6 and further demanding that it be held within 24 hours. A request for appointing a court commissioner for “free and fair” elections was also made.
Police occupied in coming week, court told
During the hearing, the court was apprised by UT’s senior standing counsel Anil Mehta and senior advocate, Chetan Mittal, who appeared for MC, that programmes were taking place in the city in the run-up to the inauguration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on January 22. Thereafter, police will be busy with arrangements related to the Republic Day celebrations. Hence, keeping in view the law and order issue, the date of February 6 had been fixed.
They also referred to a report from UT police, wherein they expressed reservations about AAP councillors turning up at the MC office on January 16 with 50-60 odd Punjab Police commandoes.
On the other hand, petitioner’s counsels’ senior advocate and Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh and Gaurav Garg Dhuriwala questioned the order passed by the deputy commissioner on deferring the polls.
They had argued that the DC could not have passed the order, when the poll date was already fixed. They had also questioned how the law and order situation arose suddenly on the election day, when there was nothing prior to that.
Even as a plea on the issue of election was pending before the court on Thursday afternoon and was to be taken up following a request for urgent hearing, an order was passed by the administration, deferring the poll till February 6, they had submitted, adding that this was illegal and arbitrary and that an effort was made “to overreach and frustrate the proceedings pending before the court”.
“This is being done to help a particular political dispensation that is holding the reins of the corporation till now, as they are evidently short of majority. The whole process has been hijacked by creating hurdles at every step, forcing the petitioner to come to court ...,” Singh had submitted.
In its observations, the court held that the argument of apprehensions of law and order situation was not acceptable. “..We can order central forces.. you (to UT’s counsel) get instructions on January 23. Otherwise, court will be constrained to pass an order,” the court remarked, adding that it was not a general election and that city police had to manage only an election with 35 people participating in it.
In the 35-member MC House, the AAP and the Congress, which are contesting the election as allies, have 20 votes, while the BJP, which has been ruling the MC for eight years now, has 15 votes —14 of councillors and one of MP Kirron Kher.
Fourth plea by AAP-Congress alliance
This was the third plea from the AAP and the fourth from the Congress-AAP alliance on the high-stakes elections, scheduled on January 18, but deferred by the administration owing to the presiding officer’s ill-health.
The Congress and the AAP have been accusing UT officials of siding with the BJP and deferring the election to allow the saffron party time to muster support by horse-trading to prevent “imminent defeat”.
