Announce civic body polls within 15 days: HC to Punjab
The Punjab and Haryana high court has given Punjab government 15 days’ time to decide on civic body polls.
Strap: No elections have been held till date at the municipal council, corporation level permitting unelected representatives to run the show
The Punjab and Haryana high court has given Punjab government 15 days’ time to decide on civic body polls.
The order was passed by the high court bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Anil Kshetarpal after the state’s advocate general, Gurminder Singh assured that the government would take “positive steps” towards holding local bodies elections.
“...it would be appropriate to afford a last opportunity of 15 days to the state of Punjab, failing which, this court makes it clear that... (it)...would not hesitate in passing an appropriate writ of mandamus (a court order that compels a government or entity),” the bench said while deferring the hearing for October 15.
Singh had appeared, on September 10, after the court had questioned the state government for not holding the MC elections despite the term of the same being over.
The court was hearing a clutch of petitions, including one from Beant Kumar, a resident of Malerkotla, which demanded immediate high court intervention. The plea said there are a few councils in the state where elections have been pending for over three years. The petitioner has listed 42 councils and five municipal corporations of Phagwara, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, where the five-year term is over.
The bench had said on September 10 that in spite of the term of the last municipal councils as well as municipal corporations in the state having expired in December 2022 and January 2023, respectively, no elections have been held to date despite there being a clear mandate in the Constitution of India as well as in the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 for holding elections before the expiry of the term of the elected body in municipalities.
“It is surprising that no elections have been held till date at the municipal council as well as municipal corporation level thereby permitting unelected representatives to run the show,” it had further recorded.
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