Lucknow, Jun 3 The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to place on record a report of the Backward Classes Commission relating to panchayat elections and asked the state Election Commission to clarify the likely schedule for holding the polls.
The order was passed by a vacation bench on Lucknow comprising justices Shekhar B Saraf and A K Chaudhary while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the state government's decision to appoint incumbent village heads (gram pradhans) as administrators after the expiry of their tenure on May 26.
The PIL was filed by local advocate Om Prakash Prajapati. The next hearing in the matter has been fixed for July 10.
The petitioner challenged a May 25 government order under which existing gram pradhans were appointed as administrators following the completion of their five-year term.
According to the petition, Section 12 of the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act limits the tenure of a gram pradhan to five years from the date of taking oath. It was argued that by not conducting panchayat elections within the stipulated period and subsequently appointing outgoing pradhans as administrators, the state had effectively extended their tenure for an indefinite period, which was contrary to law.
The petition further contended that if elections could not be conducted on time, the government should follow the earlier practice of appointing an assistant development officer (panchayat) or another government official as administrator instead of the outgoing gram pradhans.
During the hearing, the court directed the state government to submit the Backward Classes Commission report and asked the State Election Commission to apprise it of the status and likely timeline of the proposed panchayat elections.
