Uttarakhand High Court Permits Continuation Of Panchayat Elections In State
Whereas observing that there was substantial compliance with Article 243- D of the Structure, the Uttarakhand Excessive Court docket has vacated the keep on the interim order whereby the Panchayat elections had been stayed.
The dispute revolved across the repetitions in respect of Scheduled Casts, Scheduled Tribes and Different Backward Class seats in the Zila Panchayats.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice G. Narendar and Justice Alok Mahra ordered, “In that view of the matter, the interim order dated 23.06.2025 stands vacated. The election course of shall be commenced from the stage it was stopped.”
Senior Counsel Rajendra Dobhal represented the Petitioners whereas Advocate Common S.N. Babulkar represented the Respondent.
Factual Background
On an earlier event, the Court docket discovered a violation of the constitutional mandate of Article 243-D and stayed the additional proceedings pursuant to the election notification. The matter was talked about by the Advocate Common, stating that the interim order had rendered worthless the election course of set in movement by the State. On the problem of compliance with the provisions of Article 243-D, sure information detailing reservations assigned within the 2019 Elections and the 2025 elections had been positioned earlier than the Court docket.
Reasoning
On a perusal of the chart describing the rotation of territorial constituency in several Zila Panchayats, the Bench famous that the complete variety of repetitions in respect of Scheduled Casts, Scheduled Tribes and Different Backward Class seats, out of 358 Zila Panchayats, amounted to solely 8 in quantity, i.e. 1 repetition in Zila Panchayat Chamoli,1 repetition in Zila Panchayat Bageshwar, 2 repetition in Zila Panchayat Udham Singh Nagar, 2 repetition in Zila Panchayat Nainital, 1 repetition in Zila Panchayat Uttarkashi and 1 repetition in Zila Panchayat Champawat.
“In all, the variety of repetitions compared with the full seats is miniscule, and it has additionally come out through the course of listening to that there has additionally been delimitation train and sure new panchayats have been carved out”, it stated.
The Bench held, “…and this Court docket having, prima facie, concluded that there’s substantial compliance with the provisions of Article 243- D, the interim order granted on 23.06.2025 can’t be continued and the election course of are to be continued from the stage the place they had been halted by this Court docket.”
Contemplating the truth that the stoppage of the election course of, i.e. by 4 days, resulted in disruption of the submitting of nominations, the Bench prolonged the final date for submitting the nomination by a additional interval of 4 days. The matter has now been listed on July 28, 2025.
Trigger Title: Berendra Singh Butola v. State of Uttarakhand & one other (Case No.: Writ Petition (M/B) No. 400 of 2025)
Look
Petitioner: Senior Counsels Rajendra Dobhal, V.B.S. Negi, Advocates M.C. Pant, Jitendra Chaudhary, Anil Kumar Joshi, Shobhit Saharia, Aditya Singh, Yogesh Kumar Pacholia, Ankush Negi, Azmeen, Suryakant Maithani, Dushyant Mainali, Nikhil Bhatt, Krishan Mohan Joshi, Rishab Ranghar, Rohit Kumar, Shakti Singh, Niranjan Bhatt, Hari Mohan Bhatia, Nivesh Bahguna, M.S. Bhandari, Reituparn Joshi, Shivanand Bhatt, Kurban Ali, I.D. Paliwal, Mahendra Singh Rawat, Shailendra Nauriyal, Deep Prakash Bhatt, Vikas Pande, Ketan Joshi, Prashant Khanna
Respondent: Advocate Common S.N. Babulkar, Further Advocate Common J.P. Joshi, Chief Standing Counsel C.S. Rawat, Further Chief Standing Counsels Rajeev Singh Bisht, Standing Counsels B.S. Parihar, Gajendra Chaudhary, Advocate Sanjay Bhatt
