The amendment to the Municipal Corporation Act has been challenged before the Himachal Pradesh High Court. This amendment has been made to prepare the election list on the lines of Vidhan Sabha for Shimla Municipal Corporation elections. A division bench of Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice CB Barowalia issued a notice to the government and sought its reply by August 22. It has been alleged that the amendment in the Municipal Corporation Act is contrary to the provisions given in the Constitution. The government had issued a notification in this regard on March 9, 2022. The government has issued this notification contrary to the constitution to get political benefits. In Shimla Municipal Corporation elections, about 20 thousand people have been deprived of exercising their fundamental right.
Under this, only those people will be able to vote in the municipal elections, whose name will be in the voter list of the Municipal Corporation Shimla Vidhan Sabha. Four wards of Shimla Rural Assembly Constituency and two wards of Kasumpti Vidhan Sabha come under the ambit of Shimla Municipal Corporation. The petitioner’s advocate Hamendra Singh Chandel told the court that if any person outside the periphery of Municipal Corporation Shimla area wants to cast his vote in the Municipal Corporation election, he will have to get his vote deducted from his home assembly constituency.
