Nainital High Court has put a temporary halt on the upcoming three-tier panchayat elections in Uttarakhand by staying the state government’s reservation order issued on June 11. The decision came in response to a batch of petitions challenging the government’s move to reset the rotational reservation system by declaring all previous reservations as null and initiating a “first-time” reservation from this year.
Following the government’s order, the State Election Commission had released the election notification, and the Model Code of Conduct came into force. However, the bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice Alok Mehra has now stayed the process after finding the government’s explanation unsatisfactory.
The petitions, filed by Bageshwar resident Ganesh Dutt Kandpal and others, argued that the June 9 rules and the subsequent June 11 order violated previous High Court guidelines. They claimed that the rotation had unfairly caused certain seats to remain reserved for four consecutive terms, depriving many from participating in the electoral process.
The state government had stated that similar petitions are pending before a single bench, but petitioners clarified they were challenging both the June 9 rule changes and the June 11 order before a division bench. With the court’s interim stay, the panchayat election process has now been paused across the state.
