No change in panchayat election schedule

Friday, 28/12/2018

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CHANDIGARH: The state election commission (SEC) on Thursday said the panchayat polls in Punjab will be held as per schedule on December 30.

The announcement was made after the Punjab and Haryana high court refused to modify the December 24 order asking the government to consider representations of those whose candidature was rejected.

The HC vacation bench of justices TS Dhindsa and Mahabir Singh Sidhu took up the petition and deferred the hearing to January 7. “The elections will be held on December 30 as the high court did not comment on the poll schedule,” state election commissioner Jagpal Singh Sandhu said.

“The competent authorities, i.e., deputy commissioners, were taking up individual representations. They know the fate of representations which as per HC orders were to be filed within 48 hours of the December 24 order. The aggrieved persons should have made their representations within specified time,” he said.

Of a total of 13,276 seats of sarpanches and 83,831 seats of panches, 4,363 sarpanches and 46,754 panches have been elected unanimously, the election commission says. On December 24, the HC bench hearing at least 100 petitions alleging arbitrary rejection of candidature had asked all the petitioners to make representations for the redressal of their

grievances to the deputy commissioners, who in turn, were directed to direct the same to the returning officers concerned. A window of 48 hours was given for the grievance redressal.

The state government had argued that the order was in violation of the Supreme Court directive saying courts can’t interfere once election process is set in motion.

“The order was passed in 110 petitions, without hearing the state government which doesn’t even know what was grievance of the petitioners. In many cases, they have not got the writ petitions filed by the candidates,” the state’s counsel had told the HC. The state argued ballot papers have already been printed and if

new candidates were allowed the polls will have to be postponed.

Though the government functionaries claim that the process was carried in a transparent manner, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Akali Dal called it a farce. “How can the government deny that it was not interfering in the poll process? The rejection of the government’s plea for a review of order today is a slap on their face,” AAP MLA Aman Arora said. He demanded that postal ballots be given to at least 1 lakh government employees to cast their vote in the polls.

SAD leader Daljit Cheema said the government should have gone by the court order and made serious efforts for grievance redressal of aggrieved parties.