The Allahabad High Court has ordered the Election Commission and the Government of Uttar Pradesh to hold the gram panchayat elections by 30 April in all circumstances so that all the panchayats can be formed by 15 May. The district panchayat members and block chiefs have been instructed to hold elections by 15 May itself. The court has directed to complete the reservation work for the panchayat elections by 17 March. The High Court had earlier rejected the Election Commission’s proposal to hold elections in May. This order has been given by a bench of Justice MN Bhandari and Justice RR Aggarwal on the petition of Vinod Upadhyay.
The petition said that as per rules, panchayat elections should have been held by 13 January 21. But this was not done. Which is a violation of Article 243 (e) of the Constitution. The Election Commission told the court that on 22 January the voter list is ready. Delimitation has been done till 28 January. The reservation of seats has to be done by the state government, so the election program could not be released.
It will take 45 days for the elections to be held after the reservation of seats is completed. During the hearing on Thursday, the High Court refused to convince the Election Commission schedule. Asked to answer it on Friday. The High Court said that the schedule given by the Election Commission cannot be accepted. Advocate Raghavendra Singh and Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal, appearing for the state government, said that due to Covid-19, preparations for holding panchayat elections have been affected. The court rejected the argument that elections of village heads should be held by April 30 and district panchayat members and block heads by May 15. So that the work of formation of Panchayats can be completed in time.
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