High Court issues notice to Punjab on plea seeking quashing of move to dissolve gram panchayats
The petition says the notification dated August 10 is ‘totally illegal, arbitrary and against the principle of natural justice’
High Court issues notice to Punjab on plea seeking quashing of move to dissolve gram panchayats
Chandigarh: Less than a week after the Punjab government issued a notification to dissolve all gram panchayats in the state, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday issued a notice of motion to the state of Punjab on a petition seeking the quashing of the decision. Among other things, it was stated in the petition that the notification dated August 10 was “totally illegal, arbitrary and against the principle of natural justice”.
Taking up the petition filed by Balwinder Singh and other petitioners, the Division Bench of Justice Raj Mohan Singh and Justice Harpreet Singh Brar also fixed August 28 as the next date of hearing. The petitioners––elected representatives/sarpanches of gram panchayats––submitted through counsel Manish Kumar Singla, Shikha Singla and Dinesh Kumar that the notification was also against the settled law. Elaborating on it, they contended that all gram panchayats in the state of Punjab had wrongly and illegally been dissolved before the expiry of the tenure/term of the elected representatives.
It was added that the petitioners being elected sarpanches took charge only in January 2019. As such, their tenure was up to January 2024. But it was decided by the state government to hold elections to gram panchayats by December 31.
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