UP seeks dismissal of petition in HC on local bodies polls

Uttar Pradesh government today sought dismissal of a petition challenging the conduct of district and block panchayats members polls on separate dates.
UP's Advocate General (AG) Vijay Bahadur Singh told the court that panchayat poll process has been started and notification for election of districts and block panchayats has been issued "as per the Constitutional provisions".
"Hence no cause of action survived to this writ petition and it was liable to be dismissed," Singh said.
The AG also said that the UP government was acting in accordance to the Article 243 of the Constitution, dealing with panchayat election.
Counsel for State Election Commission (SEC) also appeared before the court and sought time for filing counter affidavit regarding issues raised in the petition.

A division bench of justices Rakesh Tiwari and Attau Rahman Masoodi fixed September 29 as the next date of hearing, giving time to UP government and SEC to file detailed counter affidavits.

The court had earlier sought responses from the UP government and the SEC on the writ petition, challenging the UP government order related to conducting district and block panchayats members election first and election of village pradhans later.
The bench passed the order on the petition filed by two persons of Bahraich district, seeking direction for quashing the government order dated September 5.
Petitioner's counsel Prashant Singh Atal had alleged that as per Article 243 E of the Constitution, election of village heads should be completed before its five-year term is over, hence the government order was bad in the eyes of law.

The petitioners also sought a direction for conducting district, blocks and village panchayats polls simultaneously "as per the legal provisions".
He had further submitted that the term of present village pradhans was going to expire on November 7, while district and block (Kshetra) panchayat members' term was ending on January 17 next year and and March 13 respectively.