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Panchayat polls: HC adjourns hearing on 300 more pleas to Oct 14
The petitions were listed before the bench of justice Vikas Bahl and justice Harpreet Singh Brar, which on Friday asked state’s counsel to seek instructions on these pleas by Monday and deferred the hearing. A detailed order is yet to be made available.
Chandigarh
A vacation bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court has deferred hearing on 300-odd fresh petitions alleging violation of norms for the October 15 panchayat elections in Punjab for Monday.
The petitions were listed before the bench of justice Vikas Bahl and justice Harpreet Singh Brar, which on Friday asked state’s counsel to seek instructions on these pleas by Monday and deferred the hearing. A detailed order is yet to be made available.
“All issues, including maintainability of the election-related pleas before the court and the grant of interim relief, have been kept open for further deliberations,” lawyer HC Arora said after the hearing.
Now, the pleas will be taken up by the regular division bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur and justice Sudeepti Sharma when the court reopens on Monday after the Dussehra break.
According to lawyers, in most cases procedure adopted by the administrations in rejecting the candidature for the posts of sarpanches/ panches has been challenged. In some cases, there are allegations of use of force, coercion etc.
On Wednesday, a division bench presided over by justice Sandeep Moudgil had stayed election process in 200-odd panchayats observing that facts of the cases before it indicate “mala fide and arbitrary exercise of power” by the authorities. Those petitions are to be taken up on October 16. The elections in the state are to take place on October 15 in over 13,000 panchayats.
The high court has also directed videography during polls and also at the time of counting inside and outside the polling stations in 22 panchayats from different districts of the state. The court also ordered that footage be preserved for three years. The order was passed on 22 petitions, seeking directions in this regard.
Poll observer reviews arrangements in Malerkotla
Chandigarh: IAS officer Bhupinder Singh, election observer for Malerkotla district and director of information and public relations, on Friday held a meeting with additional deputy commissioner (rural development)-cum-additional district election officer Navdeep Kaur and other election officials to review the arrangements for the upcoming gram panchayat elections. He asked officials to immediately act upon and report any complaints received by them, ensuring no negligence in the election process. He also shared instructions from the state election commission to conduct the entire election process in a fair, transparent, and smooth manner, considering the general elections of gram panchayats scheduled for October 15.
