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High court tells Chandigarh not to notify MC election schedule till November 23
The oral directions were given by the high court bench of justice Ritu Bahri and justice Karamjit Singh while hearing pleas against the reservation roster notified by UT on October 19, for the Chandigarh MC polls.
The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has told Chandigarh administration not to notify the schedule of municipal corporation (MC) elections till November 23.
The oral directions were given by the bench of justice Ritu Bahri and justice Karamjit Singh while hearing pleas against the reservation roster notified by UT on October 19.
The UT administration on Thursday failed to respond to the plea filed by one Shiv Kumar on October 27 even as matter was adjourned from Wednesday to Thursday while asking UT to file its response. During the resumed hearing on Thursday, it came to light that the counsel who was appearing in the matter was suddenly changed. The new lawyer, who appeared before the court could not file a response even as petitioners contended that it was being delayed deliberately and notification for December polls could be issued anytime now and in view of that the plea would become infructutous.
The court took serious note of the matter and called for Anil Mehta, the counsel who was appearing till Wednesday, and also summoned Legal Remembrance (LR), Vijay James to the court for afternoon hearing.
The LR and other officials then were asked as to why an affidavit, clarifying as to how the population has been adjusted while increasing the number of wards from 26 to 35, has not been filed for which order was issued on November 9. It was also asked as to how response has not been filed to the plea filed on October 27.
In view of this, the court while posting the matter for November 23 has asked UT to respond to the issues raised and not to issue formal notification till then. “Detailed order is awaited. However, during the proceedings, the court orally asked Chandigarh administration not to issue the notification for polls,” Mehta added.
It is to be recalled here that UT does not have a senior standing counsel, the top law officer in high court on civil side since October 28, after elevation of justice Pankaj Jain as additional judge of HC. The cases are assigned to different lawyers by the Senior Standing Counsel. However, in the case in hand, the decision to change the counsel was taken by administration on Wednesday, a day before the hearing.
There are two pleas on the issue one filed by Shiv Kumar, a resident of sector-42 on October 25 and second plea filed on November 17 by one Dhanas resident, Prem Pal. The pleas argue that reservation of wards notification should be done after excluding the population of the colonies not existing presently or partly demolished. It demands fresh notification on reservation of wards. The polls are slated for mid-December and tenure of MC ends on December 31. The officials had been maintaining that the notification would be issued by November 20.
