Supreme Court Directs Punjab Govt, SEC To Notify Municipality Elections In 2 Weeks; To Be Completed In 8 Weeks Thereafter

While partially modifying a Punjab and Haryana High Court order which directed that Punjab municipality elections be notified within 15 days, the Supreme Court today ordered that the election process shall commence within 2 weeks from today and be completed within 8 weeks thereafter.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing Punjab's challenge to the High Court order which issued a mandamus to Punjab government which sought time to conduct the election on the ground that a fresh delimitation exercise was required to be conducted.

While extending the time-period, the bench added, "the petitioner authority shall be at liberty to apprise the High Court to defer the contempt proceedings".

Senior Advocate Dr AM Singhvi and Punjab AG Gurminder Singh appeared for the State of Punjab. Hearing their submissions, Justice Kant expressed at the outset,

"No question of delimitation. We don't want to say anything today, otherwise you will invite strictures against you. You first go and hold the elections. There are 2 Supreme Court judgments against you. You have to complete 5 yr term, expired. Law mandates that you start the process before expiry of the term."

At one point, the judge also expressed surprise at the Punjab State Election Commission being a petitioner in the case.

Briefly put, the High Court was called on to decide whether it was permissible to delay holding of elections to Municipalities/Municipal Councils/Municipal Corporations/Nagar Panchayats on account of pending exercise of delimitation of wards. As per Punjab, 16 weeks were required for completing the entire process of delimitation.

Going through Articles 243E and 243U of the Constitution (dealing with Duration of Panchayats etc.), and judicial precedents, the High Court noted that process of delimitation cannot be made ground to withhold the election process.

"The constitutional mandate requires that elections to constitute a Municipality shall be held before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution as per Article 243U (3)(b). According to this mandate, elections to the Municipalities must be completed before the end of their five-year term", it recorded.

Accordingly, the High Court directed the State Election Commission (Punjab) and the State of Punjab to initiate the process of holding elections by notifying election programmes in all the Municipalities and Municipal Corporations in question within 15 days from the date of order, without conducting fresh exercise of delimitation.

Case Title: THE STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS. Versus BEANT KUMAR AND ANR., SLP(C) No. 26468-26469/2024

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