In Ranchi, the Jharkhand High Court slammed the state government for keeping local elections on hold. The court said the delay in voting for municipal corporations and other urban bodies is unacceptable and ordered the government to send its plan to the State Election Commission (SEC) within three weeks.
The ruling came during a hearing over a contempt petition before Justice Ananda Sen. Key officials – Chief Secretary Avinash Kumar, Home Secretary Vandana Dadel, Principal Secretary of Urban Development Sunil Kumar, and Additional Secretary Gyanendra Kumar – were present.
The government’s lawyer, Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan, said the hold‑up is due to figuring out the reservation share for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies, following the Supreme Court’s triple‑test rule. He claimed the triple‑test survey is finished and the report will soon reach the cabinet. Once approved, the government will give the SEC its recommendations to start the poll process.
The court warned that the government cannot keep delaying the elections and emphasized immediate action. It denied the SEC’s request for more time and told it to explain at the next hearing how quickly it can hold elections once it receives the government’s recommendation.
The High Court also ordered that the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, and Urban Development Secretary remain personally present at the next hearing on November 10.
Earlier, on January 4, the same bench had told the government to conduct elections for all municipal bodies within three weeks after hearing a petition from Roshni Khalkho, a former Ranchi Municipal Corporation councillor. That order has not been carried out, prompting Khalkho to file the current contempt petition.
Jharkhand has 48 urban local bodies, but 12 of them have been waiting for polls since June 2020. The rest of the bodies completed their terms in April 2023, yet no election dates have been announced.
Source: ianslive
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