Hearing held on Rajiv Lochan Sah’s PIL on civic polls
By Arun Pratap Singh
Nainital, 11 Jun: The Uttarakhand High Court today heard a petition regarding contempt of court against the Uttarakhand Government filed for non-conduct of municipal elections even six months after completion of the tenure of the urban local bodies of the state. While hearing the case, senior Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari has issued a notice of contempt to the state government and sought a compliance report.
Petitioner Rajiv Lochan Sah, a journalist, has made Principal Secretary RK Sudhanshu and Additional Secretary Nitin Bhadauria parties in his contempt petition. Sah claimed that the state government did not follow the orders of the court. Earlier, the state government had submitted before the Court twice that it would complete the elections of the bodies by 2 June, 2024. Sah said that, till now, the state government has neither conducted the elections nor followed the orders of the court. This is a constitutional crisis, he claimed.
The petitioner has also stated that, if for any reason the state government is unable to conduct elections within the stipulated time, then it can ensure continuance of administrative work by appointing administrators for a maximum period of only six months, but the election process should be completed within those 6 months. Sah said that, in Uttarakhand, elections were not conducted even 6 months after the term of the bodies ended. The government has further extended the term of the administrators, which is against the order of the High Court and against the Constitution of the country and the submission of the government before the Court. Therefore, contempt action should be taken against them for not following the orders of the court.
Rajiv Lochan Sah is a senior journalist based in Nainital. He had filed a PIL in the Uttarakhand High Court regarding the civic elections. In the PIL, Rajiv Lochan Sah had said that the term of the municipalities and municipal bodies ended in December 2023, but even after a week of the end of the term, the government did not announce the schedule for holding elections, but rather postponed them and appointed administrators in the urban local bodies. Sah has claimed that due to the appointment of the administrators, the common people are facing many problems, and a PIL is already pending in the court in this regard.
Sah stated today through his petition that the government has no right to appoint an administrator after the term of the bodies ends. When the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are held in the stipulated time, but why can’t the elections of the urban local bodies not be held in time.
