A bench also lifted the stay imposed last week on the elections of over 270 Gram Panchayats.
Punjab Panchayat Elections 2024 Latest News Today: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has delivered a major relief to the Punjab government by dismissing nearly a thousand petitions challenging various aspects of the upcoming Panchayat elections. The petitions were primarily focused on issues such as ward demarcation, families voting in separate wards, and the requirement for a no-objection certificate (NOC) in the electoral process. However, the court did grant the demand for videography of the elections in some specific petitions.
A bench led by Justice Sureshwar Thakur also lifted the stay imposed last week on the elections of over 270 Gram Panchayats.
On Monday, around 800 petitions came before the court under various allegations. The Punjab government requested the court to address all the petitions at once, particularly those that resulted in the stay order on the Panchayat elections. As a result, the court proceeded to hear all the cases simultaneously, covering a range of issues such as ward demarcation, nomination rejections, and requests for election videography.
After careful consideration, the court dismissed all the petitions except for the one requesting videography. In its ruling, the court emphasized that the State Election Commission is an independent body and is fully equipped to handle election-related concerns. The petitioners argued that the court could intervene since the electoral rules had been challenged, but the state government countered that the High Court should not interfere in the ongoing election process.
Citing the Chandigarh mayoral election case, the petitioners claimed that even post-election, the Supreme Court had intervened. However, after hearing all sides, the High Court dismissed the petitions. Full details of the court's reasoning are still awaited, which will clarify the grounds on which the petitions were rejected.
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