E-Paper
HC notice to Punjab on plea challenging decision to dissolve gram panchayats
The HC bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh and justice Harpreet Singh Brar while seeking response by August 28, also asked the Punjab government why the notification issued should not be stayed.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday issued notice to Punjab on a bunch of pleas challenging Punjab government decision to dissolve all the gram panchayats in the state.
The high court bench of justice Raj Mohan Singh and justice Harpreet Singh Brar while seeking response by August 28, also asked the government why the notification issued should not be stayed.
The pleas in two different pleas were Balwinder Singh and others and one Sarabjit Singh, all elected panchayat representatives, who have challenged government notification of August 10 on dissolution and declaration of general elections of the members of gram panchayats, panchayat samitis and zila parishad under the Panchayati Raj Act. The election is stated to be on December 31.
The plea argues that all the gram panchayats had been wrongly and illegally been dissolved before the expiry of the tenure/term of the elected representatives. The petitioners being elected sarpanches took charge only in January 2019. As such, their tenure was up to January 2024. But the government cut short their tenure and declared general elections of panchayats. “...the power to announce election any time and to dissolve the panchayats could not mean that the tenure laid down by the Constitution could be curtailed at the whim and fancy of the authority concerned. The Constitution guaranteed a five-year term, beginning from the date of the first meeting. This provision was sacrosanct,” the plea underlines.
It further submitted that if the authority finds that it is in public interest so to do, it can order the dissolution of the existing panchayats. But in the present case no public interest is there, rather the present regime wants to “cash in on the prevailing mood,” it added.
The plea questions whether the government could dissolve all the panchayats and announce elections before the expiry of the prescribed five-year period “without giving a valid reason”.
