HC lifts stay on Gurdwara polls

The Delhi High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for holding of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee polls.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday cleared the decks for holding of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee polls.

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Two judge bench headed by acting chief justice AK Sikri lifted the stay on the poll notification imposed by a single judge bench on February 7 and asked the government to fix a fresh poll schedule.

The single judge bench had ruled that the polls could not be held without the Delhi Government updating within a month the electoral rolls with photographs of voters.

Directorate of gurdwara election (DGE) and Delhi government also challenged the order to complete the exercise of delimitation in 46 wards within a month.

The larger bench upheld the argument of Delhi government counsel Rajiv Nanda that the poll process cannot be stopped once it has commenced.

“Court would not stay the continuation of the election process even though there may be some alleged irregularity or breach of rules while preparing the electoral rolls”, the two-judge bench said.

Larger bench also found merit in the argument that delimitation of 46 wards would take a long time and could be done only after the elections. The two-judge bench, however, asked the DGE to undertake the task of delimitation and preparation of fresh electoral rolls immediately after the elections.