Punjab on Friday undertook before the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the forthcoming Kharar Municipal Council elections would be deferred. The undertaking came after a petition raised the issue of residents being deprived of their voting and electoral rights due to incomplete delimitation of newly added areas.
The matter before the Bench of Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Deepak Manchanda assumes significance as the petitioners, through counsel Harsh Chopra, had contended that several areas included within Kharar Municipal Council limits after the 2021 delimitation exercise had still not been delimited into wards, even as the process stood frozen following a Central notification effective from January 1.
Appearing before the Bench, Chopra on the petitioners’ behalf had contended that a “practical problem” had arisen because areas now forming part of Municipal Council, Kharar, had not been assigned to wards. As a result, residents of such localities would neither be able to vote nor contest the municipal elections if the polls were conducted on the basis of the earlier delimitation.
The plea asserted that such a situation would seriously prejudice the democratic rights of the affected residents. As such, elections should not be conducted till the entire area falling within the Municipal Council, Kharar, was properly delimited in accordance with law, the petitioners contended. The petitioners, as such, sought directions that elections should not be conducted till the entire area falling within the Municipal Council, Kharar, was properly delimited in accordance with law.
On the earlier date of hearing, the State had sought time to obtain instructions and apprise the court regarding the solution proposed by the government in the prevailing circumstances. When the matter was taken up on Friday, Punjab informed the High Court that the elections would be deferred, effectively addressing the immediate apprehension raised in the petition over disenfranchisement of residents from newly added but non-delimited areas.
