In an extraordinary hearing, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday night allowed Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar to make a night halt in Jind after the deputy commissioner reportedly said that due to the poll code, the CM can’t make an overnight stay there.

The campaigning for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, which will go to polls on May 12, ended on Friday evening.

The high court bench of justice Rajiv Sharma and justice HS Sidhu held the hearing at around 10.30 pm, after urgent hearing was sought by the state advocate general’s office. After hearing the arguments for nearly 20 minutes, the court allowed the CM to make an overnight halt at government rest house in Jind/Narwana.

“The weather had started packing up in the afternoon at Chandigarh.It would have been difficult for the CM to travel distance of 340 km at one stretch,” the bench observed.

Khattar was scheduled to fly back in a chopper from Mandi Dabwali in Sirsa, where he was campaigning on Friday. However, the chopper could not fly due to a dust storm. He decided to travel by road and make a night halt at Narwana in Jind.

However, the Jind DC-cum-returning officer pointed out that a night-halt in Jind after the campaign-end could not be permitted. The DC reasoned that after the campaigning is over, ministers and MLAs can’t stay overnight in constituencies except where they are registered voters. The CMO officials then approached the state’s chief electoral officer and election commission, but did not get any response.

The petition was filed around
8pm. Following this, chief justice Krishna Murari was requested to constitute a special bench and allow an urgent hearing. The Centre and the ECI counsels too were informed. The bench held the extraordinary hearing past 10 pm. The order was finally handed over at midnight.

First Published: May 11, 2019 05:24 IST