Dehradun: Uttarakhand HC has held the upcoming panchayat elections, indicating that the Gazette notification on the reservation rules was not issued by the government. A division bench of Chief Justice G. Narendra and Justice Alok Maharaj sought detailed description from the authorities in this regard.The court said that the state EC had gone ahead and announced the dates of the pole last week, even though the relevant legal proceedings were still pending. Elections were to be held in two phases – on 10 and 15 July – with results on July 19. About 47.7 lakh voters were expected to cast their votes in 12 of the 13 districts of Uttarakhand (Haridwar district were out of this process).The matter reached the court through petitions filed by Ganesh Dutt Kandpal and others of Bageshwar, who objected to the government’s decision to cancel the old reservation rotation system and introduce the new rules on 9 and 11 June respectively. The petitioners argued that the move allowed some seats – already reserved for three consecutive terms – to remain reserved for the fourth term, which they said “against the spirit of inappropriate and rotation, because it restrictions opportunities for other candidates”.The court agreed that it denied its earlier instructions on fair reservation practices. While the government said that a single-judge bench was already noticing the issues related to the related issues, the petitioners’ counsel said that their challenge was focused on the notification of June 9 and was particularly placed before the Division Bench. He said that the single bench was investigating the order of June 11 separately.Meanwhile, the chief permanent lawyer, CS Rawat, told TOI, “The court said that the government proceeded with the election process without issuing the Gazette notification. However, by evening, we received the Gazette notification, which we would put before the court in a similar case related to the panchayat elections.”
