The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday set aside the administration’s “unfair, unreasonable and arbitrary” decision to postpone the elections and directed that the Chandigarh mayor elections be held on January 30.
While allowing a petition challenging the order of the Chandigarh Deputy Commissioner, who is the authority to conduct the mayoral elections, postponing the elections from January 18 to February 6, a division bench of Justices Sudhir Singh and Harsh Bangar also said that The grounds on which the elections were postponed were “completely absurd and frivolous”.
The order came on a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilor Kuldeep Kumar, who challenged the administration’s order to postpone the elections. The court canceled the January 18 order of Chandigarh DC and directed that elections for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Corporation should be held on January 30 at 10 am.
“The prescribed authority shall ensure that the prescribed elections shall be held under the presiding officer, who may be nominated by the said authority,” the court order said.
The court directed that the councilors who come to vote in the elections will not be accompanied by any supporter or security personnel from any other state.
“Chandigarh Police will ensure that adequate security is provided to councilors coming to vote,” it said. The court also asked the Chandigarh Police to ensure that neither any commotion nor any untoward incident takes place in or around the MC premises during or after the election process.
The court said that the mandate of the Constitution with respect to elections to various bodies, including the MC, cannot be allowed to be withheld without any just and reasonable basis.
“Since the grounds on which the elections have been postponed are unfair and unreasonable and the fact that it has been postponed for 18 days adds to the illogicality.
“We gave ample opportunity to the respondents to hear them patiently and rectify the said mistake, but to no avail. Thus, we hold that the impugned order is completely unreasonable, unreasonable and arbitrary,” the court said.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the HC had asked the Chandigarh administration to give the earliest possible date for holding the mayoral elections, otherwise the case would be decided on merits after hearing it.
While lawyers for the Chandigarh administration said the election was postponed due to the illness of Presiding Officer Anil Masih and the law and order situation, the court said it saw no justification on prima facie grounds as if Masih had fallen ill. The DC being the appointing authority had the power to nominate or appoint another presiding officer.
The court said, on the issue of law and order situation, it would suffice to say that no cogent argument has been made on behalf of the respondents to justify the moratorium period of 18 days in the elections.
“Anyone could understand the situation, if there was a sudden crisis or natural disaster. However, there being no such thing, we are bound to see that the grounds for postponing the elections are completely absurd and frivolous,” it said.
Pointing to a police report which had said that supporters of different political parties could gather in large numbers on the election day, leading to a law and order situation, the court said that the apprehensions were not so serious that Come under the definition of emergency. Crisis or natural disaster and such situation also arose which could not be addressed by the administration.
The mayoral election, which was initially scheduled to be held on January 18, was postponed to February 6 after the presiding officer Masih fell ill, following which Congress and AAP councilors started protests.
Congress and AAP, which have joined hands for the mayor elections, have criticized the BJP, accusing it of not allowing the elections to be held due to fear of “imminent defeat”.
Under the alliance, AAP will contest the mayor’s seat, while Congress will contest the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. BJP has 14 councilors in the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. It also has one ex-officio member MP (Kirron Kher) who has voting rights.
AAP has 13 councilors and Congress has seven. Shiromani Akali Dal has one councilor in the House. In the hearing on Saturday, the lawyer of Chandigarh administration had said that the elections have been postponed keeping in mind the law and order issue.
Petitioner Kumar, who was a mayoral candidate, in his petition filed on January 19 had sought that the DC’s January 18 order, fixing February 6 as the next date for holding elections, be quashed and that the elections be held . Immediately.
On January 18, AAP had moved the High Court after the Chandigarh mayoral elections were suddenly postponed after councilors were told that the presiding officer had fallen ill.
During the hearing, the counsel for the Chandigarh administration informed the High Court that after assessing the law and order situation, the next date for the mayor elections has been fixed as February 6.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
