HC directs Punjab to notify municipal election programmes in 15 days
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the State of Punjab and its election commission to initiate notify the election programmes in municipalities and municipal corporations within 15 days without conducting fresh delimitation exercise. The direction is significant as elections to 42 local bodies are due after five-year period expiry.
“This court has no hesitation in issuing a writ of mandamus directing the State Election Commission, Punjab, and the State of Punjab, to forthwith comply with the constitutional mandate and initiate the process of holding elections by notifying election programmes in all the municipalities and municipal corporations in question within 15 days from the date of this order without conducting the fresh exercise of delimitation,” the court ruled.
Referring to Article 243E and Article 243U of the Constitution on duration of panchayats and municipalities, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Anil Kshetarpal asserted constitutional mandate required the completion of elections to the municipalities before the end of five-year term. “Article 243U(3)(b) provides the maximum time limit for holding elections, stipulating that elections must take place within six months from the date of dissolution of the municipality,” the court added.
The issue before the Bench was whether it was permissible to delay the holding of municipalities/municipal councils/municipal corporations/nagar panchayats elections on account of pending wards delimitation exercise.
The State’s stand in the matter was that the department concerned was required to constitute delimitation boards for each municipality to conduct door-to-door survey, preparation of rough maps and subsequent delimitation. It was further stated that the delimitation boards for 44 out of 47 municipalities had been constituted and processes for three were pending.
He added 16 weeks were required for completing the entire process of wards’ delimitation. He also submitted that previous attempts to carry out delimitation had been quashed by the court in the case of “Rajesh Kumar Sharma versus State of Punjab”. As such, it was necessary to carry out the fresh delimitation.
The Bench asserted the argument was erroneous as one of the grounds on which the fresh process was set aside in Rajesh Kumar Sharma's case was that the delimitation process had already been sanctioned on March 31, 2021. The fresh process had been initiated without any justification. The court had also held there was not a single digit increase in the population and there was no any alteration in the municipal limits necessitating the fresh delimitation
The Bench asserted a constitution Bench had specifically held that the delimitation process could not be made the ground to withhold the election process.
