The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) not to announce dates for the urban local bodies’ election till Tuesday, the next date of hearing on a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the reservation of wards/ seats in the civic polls.
Also, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court directed the Uttar Pradesh government not to issue the final order for reservation of wards based on the draft order issued on December 5.
Accepting the PIL, a division bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay and Justice Saurabh Srivastava on Monday observed: “We direct that the State Election Commission shall not issue election notification (announcement of dates) by tomorrow (Tuesday).”
During the hearing, the high court said it wanted to ascertain whether due process for reserving seats for the Urban local bodies had been followed or not.
Sharad Pathak, a lawyer who appeared on behalf of the petitioner Vaibhav Pandey, stated that the court had restrained the State Election Commission from announcing dates of the Urban Local bodies’ election till Tuesday, when the next hearing scheduled.
The state government counsel opposed the petition.
{{/usCountry}}The state government counsel opposed the petition.
{{/usCountry}}The high court also permitted the petitioner and other aggrieved persons to file their objections through email by Monday midnight. It directed the state counsel to seek complete instructions on the issue from the government by Tuesday.