Norms ‘violated’, panchayat poll stayed in parts of Punjab

Nearly a week before the elections to gram panchayats in Punjab are scheduled to be held, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday stayed the poll process in villages covered by 275 petitions that had alleged violation of norms during the course of filing and scrutiny of nomination papers.

The case will now be heard on October 14, a day before the panchayat elections are scheduled on October 15. The order came as the Punjab Government declared the polling day a public holiday.

The Bench of Justice Sandeep Moudgil also sought an urgent response from the government on whether it intended to withdraw the election notification and undertake a more efficient poll process. Available information suggests that the stay orders were applicable to only those villages that had been referenced in the petitions heard today, and that it was not a blanket order covering the entire state. Among the 275 petitions, there is the possibility of multiple petitioners from some villages moving the High Court. The affected villages are across Punjab.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) maintained that the stay order was a relief for the Punjab Government as the petitioner had sought the cancellation of the poll notification, an appeal that was rejected. Accusing opposition parties of deliberately politicising the matter, AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said after the withdrawal of nominations, four to five candidates were still in the fray in each village, which “proved that papers were not intentionally rejected”.

BJP’s Punjab general secretary Anil Sarin demanded the resignation of the entire Bhagwant Mann Cabinet. He said the entire poll process should be cancelled and conducted afresh. Welcoming the stay order, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said Chief Minister Mann should step down immediately for allegedly trying to stifle democracy. He also appealed to aggrieved parties to approach the court to save democracy at the grassroots.

A total of 13,237 gram panchayats are scheduled to go to the polls on October 15. After the nomination process, 49,142 candidates were left in the fray for the posts of sarpanch and 1,54,604 for the posts of panch. Already, 3,798 sarpanches and 48,861 panches have been elected unopposed.

During the nomination process, the papers of 3,683 aspirants for sarpanch and 11,734 aspirants for panch were rejected by returning officers. There had also been instances of aspirants complaining before the electoral and administration officials over the manner or reasons for which their papers were rejected. The panchayat elections in Punjab are being held after more than five years.