Court for calling in central agency if the UT Administration fails to manage law and order for MC polls.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday issued notice to the Chandigarh administration and instructed it to reschedule the deferred mayoral polls.
The court issued the notice while hearing a petition challenging the UT Administration’s order to postpone elections for MC mayoral posts. A detailed order on the matter is yet to be released by the HC.
The matter came up for hearing before the division Bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger, which issued notice to Chandigarh Administration and MC Chandigarh for January 23.
The petition was filed by Kuldeep Kumar, an elected AAP councillor and mayoral candidate for the INDIA alliance. Counsels representing Kumar, including Senior Advocates Gurminder Singh, Ferry Sofat, and Ramanpreet Singh Bara, sought the quashing of the order dated January 18, 2024, postponing the elections in the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the order was based on motivated and malafide reasons, false and frivolous grounds, and violated the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulation, 1996.
They also requested directions for the prescribed authority to conduct fair and transparent elections within 24 hours, as the original date was January 18. The petitioner’s counsels contended that the Deputy Commissioner of Chandigarh lacked the authority to issue the order postponing the polls.
In a counter argument, UT counsel Senior Advocate Chetan Mittal stated that the Prescribed Authority, as per the Act, has the power to postpone elections, asserting the legality of the order.
During the proceedings, the Court suggested verbally that the UT Administration reschedule the polls between January 23 and January 26. The UT counsel mentioned a law and order issue, citing Republic Day on January 26.
The Court said that if the UT Administration couldn’t manage law and order for the MC polls, a Central agency might be called in. The Court has asked the UT Administration to submit the rescheduled date for MC polls.