Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 6

Just four days after a meeting was convened for today by the Kotkapura convener-cum-Sub Divisional Magistrate for administering oath to remaining elected members and holding elections for the Municipal Council president’s post, the Punjab and Haryana High Court limited the meeting to administration of oath.

“It is directed that the conduct of business in the meeting called for today, pursuant to notification dated July 2, would be confined only with regard to administering oath of allegiance to the remaining elected members,” the Bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Justice Vivek Puri ruled.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed against the State of Punjab and other respondents by Savtantar Rai and other respondents through senior counsel Amit Jhanji with advocate Shashank Shekhar Sharma. At the very outset, Jhanji clarified that the challenge to the impugned notification was only with regard to the elections for the president’s post.

The Bench was told that eight elected members attended a meeting on June 18. Senior vice-president and vice-president were elected, but president could not be elected as it was reserved for the Backward Class. No such candidate was present in the meeting. It was added that power was conferred upon the DC or any other person appointed by him to convene the council’s “first” and not any subsequent meeting. “The respondent does not have any jurisdiction to call for a subsequent meeting under Rule 3 of the Punjab Municipal Election Rules, 1994,” the Bench said.