Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh high court has made it clear that any proposal for creation, bifurcation, reorganisation, or delimitation of gram panchayats issued after Feb 13 – the date of the Supreme Court judgment on the elections to the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) – and not carried out as per the legal provisions, will not be considered for the forthcoming PRI poll.The high court ruling means that the PRI elections must be conducted based on the structure of panchayats as it existed before such changes were made.A division bench comprising Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Ranjan Sharma gave the ruling while disposing of a bunch of petitions filed by various panchayats. These petitions challenged the delimitation and related election process adopted by the state’s panchayati raj department for the elections scheduled in May.The court further emphasised that if proposals for reorganisation or bifurcation were notified before Feb 13, 2026, and the delimitation process was completed strictly in accordance with the Himachal Pradesh Election Rules, particularly Rules 5, 6, 10 and 11, then such changes could be considered valid for determining electoral constituencies and reservation rosters. However, in cases where reorganisation is valid but delimitation rules were not properly followed, the elections will not be based on those changes. Instead, the earlier structure will be used, and the new changes will only apply in future elections, subject to the outcome of any pending legal cases, the court ruled.The division bench also directed the state govt to finalise and publish the reservation roster positively by April 7. It emphasised that the entire election process must be completed within the timeline set by the Supreme Court in its Feb 13 judgment titled ‘The Principal Secretary & Others vs Dikken Kumar Thakur & Others’.MSID:: 129954852 413 |
