Nainital: Uttarakhand High Court also heard various petitions filed against reservation roster determination in three-tier Panchayat elections on Friday, June 27. After the hearing, the division bench headed by the Chief Justice gave a big decision regarding the elections. While the court lifted the ban on the elections, it has asked the State Election Commission to issue the election schedule by extending the previously issued election schedule by three days.
Apart from this, the Uttarakhand High Court has asked the government to respond within three weeks to the issues raised by the petitioners. The court also said that if any candidate has objection to this, then he can present his side in the court. In today’s hearing, serious questions were also raised on determining the reservation of Block Pramukh seats and not determining the reservation of District Panchayat President seats.
The court was told that the election of Block Pramukh and District Panchayat President is done in the same way. A petitioner told the court that 63 percent of the seats of village heads were reserved in Dehradun’s Doiwala block. On Friday, before the division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Alok Mehra, the petitioners mentioned that the same class has been getting representation in many seats in the reservation roster for a long time and said that it is against Article 243 of the Constitution and the orders given by the Supreme Court from time to time.
The Advocate General and Chief Standing Counsel, while presenting the government’s side, said that after the report of the Backward Classes Dedicated Commission, it was necessary to declare the reservation roster void and consider the current Panchayat elections as the first phase.
Know the whole matter: In fact, many people including Ganesh Kandpal, a resident of Bageshwar, had challenged the rules and circular issued by the state government on June 9 and 11 in the Uttarakhand High Court. They had said in their petitions that the reservation roster till now was declared void in the rules issued by the government. Along with this, a new roster of reservation was issued and considered applicable for the first time from the current elections.
Apart from this, the petitioner said that this rule of the government is against the earlier order of the court. The second argument of the petitioner is that according to Section-126 of the Panchayati Raj Act 2016, any rule will be considered effective only when it is published in the Government Gazette. However, after today’s hearing, the court has lifted the ban on panchayat elections. Also, the Uttarakhand High Court has asked the government to respond to the issues raised by the petitioners within three weeks.
