After the strictness of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Punjab State Election Commission has decided to conduct the elections of Tarn Taran, Dera Baba Nanak and Talwara Municipal Council on March 2. Counting of votes will be done immediately after the elections.
State Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary has issued orders in this regard. The District Election Officers will be responsible for conducting fair elections at all three places. The election process will also be monitored through cameras. Apart from this, strict arrangements will also be made by the police.
Nomination process will start from February 17
The notification regarding the election program will be issued by the Commission on Monday. The last date for filing nominations will be from 17 February 2025 to 20 February 2025 (both days inclusive). The Model Code of Conduct will come into force from the date of issuance of notification in the respective revenue jurisdictions of these three municipal councils. At the same time, the process of preparing voter lists related to the elections has been completed. The final publication of voter lists was done on Saturday itself.
This is how the matter reached the court
Actually, the elections of about 43 city councils and five municipal corporations of Punjab were not held on time. Due to this, people had to face problems. Because no work was being done. After this, the matter first reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. But after this the High Court had issued orders to conduct elections immediately. The government had sought refuge in the Supreme Court against this.
On November 11, the Supreme Court had asked the Punjab government to conduct elections in a total of 10 weeks. The apex court had ordered the notification of elections in 15 days and to complete the election process in the next 8 weeks. After this, elections were held in December. But even after this, elections of these three municipal councils were not held.
Then a PIL was filed in the High Court against this by Advocate Bhishma Kinger. On the last hearing, the High Court had reprimanded Punjab and the State Election Commission and said that democracy should not be made fun of in this way. After this the Election Commission had filed its reply. The commission had told the court that elections will be held by March 10. On this the High Court said that this is a direct violation of the orders of the Supreme Court.
