HC restrains Punjab govt from notifying ward delimitation

ORDER WAS PASSED ON PLEA OF KULWINDER SINGH, A FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday restrained the Punjab government from carrying out the final notification of wards of Zirakpur municipal council (MC) under the delimitation exercise launched in July.

The order was passed by high court bench of justice Jaswant Singh and justice Ashok Kumar Verma, acting on the plea of one Kulwinder Singh, a former president of the council. A detailed order from the court is awaited.

It was argued that the Census Commissioner of India in September 2019 had asked Punjab to submit proposals of change of existing boundaries of districts and municipalities etc with December 2019 as deadline, beyond which, it had stated, the administrative boundaries shall stand frozen. In November 2019, Punjab local government department issued a notification stating that with effect from January 1 to March 31, 2020, the boundaries would stand frozen. However, in July 2020, the department in violation of its November notification constituted a board and asked it to give recommendations on delimitation of boundaries of the Zirakpur MC.

The court was told that the board has been set up in violation of norms as the state can nominate only one member, but in the case in hand, two members were nominated. Population is to be determined on the basis of the previous census, which had been conducted in 2011, after which the delimitation exercise took place in 2014. But even as fresh census data is yet to come, the government has initiated the process of ward delimitation, the HC was apprised.

The petitioner had accused the government of embarking on the exercise to seek ‘political advantage’ and demanded that the July 28 report submitted by the delimitation board be stayed. The petitioner has also demanded that the notification with which the exercise was initiated should be quashed. The court has sought a response from the state and Centre by August 27.

NK SHARMA: IT’S A BIG WIN FOR DEMOCRACY

Reacting to the development, former chief parliamentary secretary NK Sharma said that the Congress government was trying to change the boundaries of wards for the forthcoming municipal elections in Punjab as per the dictates of its legislators and party leaders.

“It was taking advantage of restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic to change ward boundaries. The high court’s decision is a big victory for democracy,” he said.