Haryana moves HC to hold panchayat poll

Chandigarh, September 14

The state has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking permission to conduct polls for panchayats, samitis and zila parishads. An application in this regard was placed before the Bench of Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sant Parkash.

The matter was brought to the HC notice with the filing of separate pleas challenging the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Second Amendment) Act, 2020.

In one of the petitions, it was contended that the Act had been enacted after ignoring a basic concept of the Constitution. As per the Act, seats would be reserved for SCs in the panchayat polls where 10% of the total population belonged to them. This meant that seat would not be reserved for the SCs wherever their population was less than 10%. The petitioners submitted this was a violation of the basic principles of reservation. In such a situation, panchayat polls should be conducted as per the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act 1994. — TNS