India News | MP HC Rejects Plea Seeking Stay on Gram Panchayat Polls

Jabalpur (MP), Dec 9 (PTI) The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday rejected a plea in a clutch of petitions seeking interim stay on the process of holding Gram Panchayat elections in the state.

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The court issued a four-week returnable notice to the state government seeking replies on the issues raised in the petitions.

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A notification to hold the Gram Panchayat elections next year in Madhya Pradesh was issued on December 4, said Siddarth Seth, the counsel of the State Election Commission (SEC).

A division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice V K Shukla took note of the order passed by the Gwalior bench on December 7, in a similar matter that rejected the plea for interim stay on the election process in view of provisions of Article 243 (O) of the Constitution of India, he said.

As per provisions in Article 243 (O), there is bar to interference by the courts in electoral matters once the election process gets started, he said.

The SEC has almost finished the process to hold the Gram Panchayat elections and teams have been mobilised in the field, he said.

The SEC opposed the demand for the interim stay on ground that due to unavoidable circumstances following the COVID-19 outbreak, the elections for Gram Panchayats could not be conducted earlier as per schedule, which mandates holding them within six months prior to completion of the tenure of the panchayat body.

A bunch of petitions filed by various persons, including one Rajesh Pateria of Damoh district and Sandeep Patel of Gadarwara in Narsinghpur district, challenged the Gram Panchayat elections on grounds that the Constitution provisions entail the delimitation of constituencies and reservation of seats before polls, said advocate Mahendra Pateria, who represents one of the petitioners.

In seven years, a few new districts have come up in the state. Considering this, delimitation and reservation should have been done before announcing the polls, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)