Udupi: High Court Orders Resumption of ZP Elections
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (VM)
Udupi, Nov 16: The high court on Thursday November 15 ordered the Udupi zilla panchayat to conduct the long-pending elections for the post of president and vice-president.
The controversy-ridden elections were earlier postponed due to conflict of interests within the BJP regarding nomination of candidates.
File Photo
It may be recalled that on October 4, the election was postponed to October 12 after BJP members failed to turn up. Due to lack of quorum, the election officer, as per panchayat rules, postponed the election to October 12.
Congress candidate for the ZP president's post K Diwakar Kunder then filed a plea in the high court stating that according to a government order, the election should have taken place even if the quorum was not filled. However, the court ordered a stay on the elections.
BJP contestant Upendra Nayak who will contest for the president’s post had also approached the high court. He stated that as there was no president for zilla panchayat, notices should be sent to all members, and thus appealed the court to give permission to conduct election.
Now, the high court has passed an order to resume the election from the stage where it was stopped. The nomination for the president’s post was done on October 4. During the meeting, only Congress members were present.
As per the earlier principles, submission of nominations was from 11 am to 1 pm, and at 3 pm elections were to be conducted after finalizing the nominations. But on October 4, the election commissioner did not proceed with the election due to lack of quorum.
The court in its order state that there is no need of quorum for finalizing or withdrawing nominations, as well as for conducting elections. Hence, the election process will now go on from where it stopped on October 4.