Hope MC poll will be held on time: HC

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today disposed of a petition on local body elections in Punjab after a schedule for conducting the same was placed before it.

The Bench of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and Justice Deepak Sibal expressed hope that the elections would be held in free and fair manner and on time.

At the very onset, Punjab Advocate-General Ashok Aggarwal placed the election schedule on record. The elections to the local bodies are slated to be held in the state by February 20, 2015. The corporations where elections are due include Bathinda, Pathankot, Phagwara, Moga, Mohali and Hoshiarpur.

The Centre and the state were at loggerheads over delay in holding elections to the local bodies in time. The Centre claimed there was no laxity on its part in providing necessary support, including election machinery, census figures and electronic voting machines, to the state in 2013. Punjab, on the other hand, claimed its decision to hold the elections to all local bodies, which had outlived their term, could not be implemented due to non-availability of election machinery and essential data.

Claims and counter-claims were made during the hearing of a petition filed by Beant Kumar against his removal from the Malerkotla Municipal Councillor’s post. During the petition’s pendency, the court noted that the council’s term had expired in July 2013, but the election was not held, in violation of Article 243U.