Himachal Pradesh High Court on Friday delivered its final verdict on a petition seeking timely conduct of panchayat elections, directing the State Election Commission to hold elections before April 30. The court ordered that the election process for panchayati raj institutions will commence from February 20, with polling scheduled for April 30.
The division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Romesh Verma heard the matter and reserved judgment on January 7 after hearing arguments from all parties. The court stated that elections cannot be postponed indefinitely to maintain constitutional institutions. The High Court also directed the Panchayati Raj Department, Election Commission, and state government to meet and formulate a strategy for conducting panchayat elections on time.
The state government’s senior advocate had expressed inability to conduct panchayat elections on time, stating that allegations of the government deliberately postponing elections were baseless. The government argued that its intention to hold elections was clear, but the process of forming new panchayats, gram sabhas, and zila parishads was underway in the state.
The government had contended that considering the legal process, conducting elections would take another six months. Even if the reservation roster was issued immediately, it would take at least 90 days to conduct elections. The State Election Commission had informed the court that there would be further difficulties in conducting elections. It stated that holding elections in February and March was not possible as children’s examinations begin during this period and employees remain busy with exam duties. After May, employees would be deployed for census duty, and heavy rains start in the state during July and August.
The petitioner’s senior advocate had refuted the government’s arguments, stating that panchayat elections were deliberately not being conducted on time. The government had one year to complete delimitation, but kept citing the disaster as an excuse. The petitioner’s counsel had demanded that the new delimitation being undertaken by the government should be for the future, and current panchayat elections should be conducted based on the old census.
The arguments stated that government machinery had completely failed in conducting elections. Panchayat elections are a constitutional institution under which it is mandatory to hold fresh elections within six months of the term expiring. The court was requested to direct the government to conduct panchayat elections on time.
