Punjab and Haryana High Court stays Panchayat polls in parts of Punjab; slams state for blatant abuse of power’, says attempt made to destroy fair election

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in the case Ramanjeet Kaur vs. State Of Punjab And Ors with connected matters observed and has slammed the Punjab Government for 'blatant abuse of power' of the state machineries in the upcoming Panchayat Elections, at the stage of filing of nomination papers.

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The court in the case had put an interim stay on further election proceedings in relation to villages involved in the petition.

The polls were set to be held on October 15, 2024.

The Vacation bench comprising of Justice Sandeep Moudgil and Justice Deepak Gupta in the case observed and has noted that candidates were declared winners 'unopposed' even before commencement of elections, by arbitrarily rejecting nomination papers of other candidates and in some cases officials of the governing party in the State' tore nomination papers and claimed that papers were lost. In some other cases, nomination papers were rejected without reasons or for false reasons.