Use of school-college ground prohibited for political rallies in Punjab, Haryana

AMBALA: All over India, the use of school or college grounds is allowed for political rallies but same has been prohibited in the states of Punjab and Haryana. Even the Election Commission of India (ECI) has mentioned in its guidelines that grounds of school or college cannot be used in Punjab and Haryana. Ambala based Punjab and Haryana High Court advocate Hemant Kumar has been searching orders on the basis of which the use of grounds is prohibited in Haryana and Punjab, but the same has not been provided by the ECI and CEO Haryana.

Hemant said, "Last month when the ECI had issued guidelines after the imposition of model code of conduct, in those guidelines it was clearly mentioned that except for the states of Punjab and Haryana, throughout India, the grounds of schools or colleges can be used for conducting political rallies. This is because of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had issued prohibiting order in this regard. The ECI in March 2009 had also issued a letter in this regard to the Chief Electoral Officers of all the states."

Hemant said, "I have researched on the internet as well as in the records of the High Court to search the order prohibiting the use of school and college ground in Punjab and Haryana for political rallies, but I have not been able to find the orders. The ECI in its prohibiting guidelines has not mentioned any details of the case number, party names, order month or year but has only mentioned about the express prohibition of the Punjab and Haryana High Court."

Last month, advocate Hemant had also written to chief election commissioner of India Sunil Arora and to CEO Haryana Rajeev Ranjan while demanding the details of the case orders when the High Court had prohibited the use of school and college grounds in Punjab and Haryana.

Hemant said, "Being an advocate, I wanted to obtain the copy of the High Court orders to study whether the orders were for up to certain time period or for some particular elections, or for an indefinite period of time and if it is so, on what basis had the High Court issued such orders whereas no such prohibition is imposed throughout the other states of India."