Election can be held only in April: CM
Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Gauhati High Court has given its assent for the holding of panchayat elections in the state, barring areas against which nine petitions are pending. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, however, said on Sunday that the Panchayat Elections will be held around the time of Bohag Bihu in April.
The single-judge bench of Justice Soumitra Saikia passed the order in a host of writ petitions filed alleging violations of the Assam Panchayat Act and its rules during the delimitation process. These petitions argue that the elections should be postponed until these errors are rectified.
The Gauhati High Court heard arguments from both the petitioners and the state respondents, including the Advocate General and the State Election Commission.
In its ruling, the court clarified that its orders from December 17, 2024, applied only to the petitioners in nine specific writ petitions and did not affect other pending cases. The court acknowledged several new writ petitions filed during the hearing, noting that each would require individual consideration based on its merits. It subsequently scheduled the petitions for further hearing and issued notices to the parties concerned.
“This Court is prima facie of the view that the interim protection granted in the nine writ petitions cannot be extended in respect of all the other writ petitions in the absence of specific facts being pleaded and countered by the State respondents. Even during the course of the hearing, several fresh writ petitions were filed raising similar issues. All these writ petitions will have to be heard upon the pleadings being completed, as it involves several questions of fact,” the bench observed.
It was further stated, “However, in view of the specific prayer made by learned Advocate General, Assam and learned Standing Counsel, State Election Commission on behalf of the State that this interim order passed on December17, 2024 be restricted to only these nine (9) writ petitions and leave be granted to the State to proceed for publication of the notification for conducting the Panchayat Election.”
Regarding the HC decision, the Chief Minister Sarma said, “The High Court has given the permission today to conduct Panchayat elections. However, we have lost the time, and if we start from today, the elections will be held in mid-February. But we have examinations of classes 10 and 12 in the next month, and conducting an election at that time will create a lot of trouble for the students in the villages. So, the elections are likely to be held around Bihu in April.”
The administration earlier could not proceed with the notification of the Panchayat polls due to a bar from the court. The government requested the court to allow the elections to take place without further legal entanglements, emphasizing the need for the polls to proceed in Panchayats despite ongoing cases.
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