Punjab and Haryana HC Warns of £50 Lakh Cost to Civil Servant if Directive to Start Punjab Municipal Elections is Not Compliant Within 10 Days

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has warned that a litigation cost of Rs 50,000 will be imposed if the instruction to initiate the process of holding elections by notifying election schedules in all Municipalities and Municipal Corporations in Punjab is not complied with.

The court is on October 14 Issue An order to the Punjab State Election Commission and the Government of Punjab to initiate the process of holding Municipal elections within 15 days from the imposition of fresh delimitation.

Elections to 42 municipal councils and nagar panchayats are pending. In some municipalities, elections have not been held for four years.

Judge Harkesh Manuja while listening to the defense of contempt, “Considering that the instruction regarding the evaluation of the plaintiff’s claim was given on 14.10.2024, more than 22 days have passed. If the compliance report is not submitted within the above mentioned period (10 days), the concerned Officer will appear before the Court through video conferencing and will reimburse the plaintiff for the litigation expenses in the amount of Rs 50,000 from his own pocket. pocket“

The court issued a notice of alleged contempt and noted that the State’s attorney requested 10 days to submit a compliance report.

The contempt petition stated that the State willfully ignored the directions of the Supreme Court to commence the elections within the stipulated time and this amounted to contempt of court.

While giving the order, the Department had said: “The constitutional order requires that elections to establish a municipality under Article 243U (3)(b) be held before the end of a period of six months from the date of dissolution of the municipality.”

The matter was listed for further consideration on 21 November.

Bhisham Kinger, counsel for the petitioner, advocates for Angrej Singh and Sukhcharan Singh Gill.

Title: BEANT KUMAR ALIAS BEANT KINGER V/S RAJ KAMAL CHAUDHURI AND OTHERS

Click here to read/download the order