India News | Punjab Civic Polls: SC to Appoint Ex-HC Judge to Look into Grievances of Candidates
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court on Monday said it would appoint a retired high court judge to conduct an inquiry into the grievances of the aggrieved candidates of the Punjab municipal body polls.
New Delhi, Mar 24 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday said it would appoint a retired high court judge to conduct an inquiry into the grievances of the aggrieved candidates of the Punjab municipal body polls.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh asked the Punjab government and the petitioners who have challenged the result of the civic body elections, to suggest a retired high court judge, who could examine their grievances.
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"It's a question of public faith and confidence. Those authorities, who are at the helm, if any allegations are made against them, then they cannot look into the grievances," the bench told the Punjab advocate general Gurminder Singh.
The court said it would pass a detailed order, giving the terms and reference of the one-man fact-finding committee, in a day or two.
The seat of the committee will be in Chandigarh, where only those petitioners, who have approached the high court or the Supreme Court with the grievances against the December 2024-January 2025 civic polls can make their claims and counter-claims, it added.
The top court clarified that it wasn't "casting any aspersions" on anyone and the grievances of the petitioners could be looked into only on a case to case basis.
Senior advocate Vivek Tankha, and other advocates appearing for the petitioners, submitted several candidates were not allowed to file the nomination papers and could not participate in the elections.
Singh opposed the submissions of the petitioners and said everything was done in accordance with law.
The top court told Singh it was all about "probity and fairness" and preventing someone at the threshold was the "real issue".
The bench's order said, "These allegations cannot be adjudicated by election petition. It has to be gone into by a fact-finding inquiry."
The matter would be heard on May 22.
On December 22, last year, the ruling AAP won the municipal elections in Patiala but fell short of a majority in the Ludhiana and Jalandhar municipal corporations even though it emerged as the largest parties in the two civic bodies.
In Amritsar and Phagwara, the Congress turned out to be the largest party as per municipal corporation results.
Elections for Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar and Phagwara aside from 44 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab took place on December 21, 2024.
Several candidates who were allegedly not allowed to file their nomination papers or those who were aggrieved with the election of mayor and deputy mayor in Patiala municipal body moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The high court on January 10 allowed conducting these elections in the Patiala municipal corporation saying the deferment of elections in some wards would not be an impediment. Aggrieved by the high court order, the candidates moved the apex court.
(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)