HC stays polls in 3 Gram Panchayats

Staff Reporter

The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday directed a temporary halt to the Gram Panchayat (GP) elections at Kondhali, Digdoh (Devi) and Nildoh villages. The High Court (HC) order pertains to writ petitions filed by Balkrishna Paliwal, MLA Sameer Meghe and ZP member Salil Deshmukh who sought to address the matter of establishing Nagar Panchayats/Municipal Councils from existing Gram Panchayats. The Urban Development Department, exercising its authority under Section 341A of the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats, and Industrial Townships Act, 1965, had proposed the formation of a Nagar Parishad/Municipal Council in specific regions. Following the prescribed procedure, the District Collector reported on August 14, 2023, and September 25, 2023, that no objections were received regarding the Draft Notifications related to these areas.

However, on October 3, 2023, the State Election Commission issued an order and proposed Gram Panchayat elections in various areas including those mentioned in the Draft Notifications. As a result, the Urban Development Department requested a deferment of these elections until the Final Notification for the Nagar Panchayat/Municipal Council formation is issued. The petitioners’ counsel argued that no further steps should be taken for holding elections in these Gram Panchayats until the Urban Development Department makes a decision or the State Election Commission considers the request for deferment. In response to these arguments, the division bench of Justices A S Chandurkar and Vrushali Joshi issued a notice to the respondents, returnable on October 10, 2023.

“Considering the fact that the Urban Development Department itself has made a request to the State Election Commission to defer holding of elections at the concerned Gram Panchayats, we find that till the time this request is considered by the State Election Commission, no further steps ought to be taken to hold the elections at the concerned Gram Panchayats of Mouza Kondhali, Mouza Digdoh (Devi) and Mouza Nildoh in terms of the order dated October 3, 2023 issued by the State Election Commission,” the court said. Advs M P Khajanchi, M I Dhatrak, R R Dawda, A A Madiwale appeared for the petitioners while APP N P Mehta for Respondent-State.