Punjab & Haryana HC Today (3rd April), dismissed a petition challenging EC’s March 16 notification for Karnal bypoll.
Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court today rejected a petition that sought to overturn the Election Commission’s March 16 notification regarding the Karnal assembly seat bypoll.
On Tuesday, a division bench led by Justices Sudhir Singh and Harsh Bunger reserved its decision on a plea to revoke the notification.
The BJP nominated Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, who also serves as an MP from Kurukshetra, for the Karnal assembly seat bypoll, vacated by his predecessor Manohar Lal Khattar. The bypoll is set for May 25, coinciding with the polling for 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.
The petitioner argued that the EC overlooked section 151(A) of the Representation of People’s Act, which exempts bypolls if the remaining term of the member is less than a year. This section mandates a by-election within six months of a vacancy, except in cases where the remainder of the term is under a year.
The petitioner, a resident of Karnal, noted that the new member would only have approximately two months in office after the bypoll.
Advocate Simarpal Singh, representing the petitioner stated ,
“The petition dismissed. We are awaiting the order,”
Last month, the BJP swiftly replaced 69-year-old Khattar with 54-year-old OBC leader Saini as Haryana’s chief minister. Khattar contesting in the Lok Sabha elections as the BJP’s candidate for the Karnal parliamentary seat.
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Announcing his resignation as MLA on March 13, Khattar stated,
“Starting today, our chief minister (Saini) will oversee the Karnal assembly constituency.”
Saini, who became chief minister on March 12, must be elected as an MLA within six months.
As per Kunal Chanana’s petition, the Haryana assembly formed on November 4, 2019, with its term ending on November 3, 2024, and assembly polls due in October 2024. The petitioner objected to substantial financial expenditure due to the incoming member’s brief tenure of approximately two months.
The court also informed about the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench overturning an EC notification for a bypoll in Maharashtra’s Akola West assembly constituency on April 26.
Similarly, in that case, the petitioner from Akola argued that the new MLA’s tenure would be less than a year.
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