IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH (123) CWP-388-2025(O&M)

Date of Decision: 10.01.2025 Seema Sharma and others .....Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others ....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SURESHWAR THAKUR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE VIKAS SURI Present: Mr. Chetan Mittal, Senior Advocate with Mr. Kunal Mulwani, Advocate, Mr. Harneet Singh Oberoi, Advocate and Mr. Ritvik Garg, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Maninder Singh, Senior DAG, Punjab.

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SURESHWAR THAKUR , J. (Oral)

1. In the instant petition, the petitioners espouse for the hereinafter reliefs:-

“to issue a writ in the nature of certiorari for setting aside the order/notice dated 07.01.2025 (Annexure P-7), and all the proceeding arising therefrom with regard to conducting of the elections for the seat/position of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor for Municipal Corporation, Patiala, which is to being held as on 10.01.2025, despite of the fact that the elections of 7 Municipal Councilors is yet to be conducted and admittedly the quorum is not complete and the entire process of election of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor is being done in utter derogation of Punjab Municipal Corporation Act. Further it is an admitted position that the election of 7 wards of Municipal Corporation Patiala was deferred/withdrawn by the ruling government in the light of statement given by State in COCP No.5302 of 2024 vide order dated 20.12.2024 (Annexure P-5).

And In the meantime, the operation of order/notice dated 07.01.2025 (Annexure P-7), and all the proceeding arising therefrom, whereby elections to the post of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, for Municipal Corporation, Patiala is to be held on 10.01.2025, may kindly be stayed during the pendency of the present writ petition And Any other writ, order or direction as this Hon’ble Court in the facts and circumstances may deem fit and proper, be also passed.”

2. The genesis of the instant petition becomes borrowed from the declaration of the election programme by the State of Punjab, as became made through the issuance of a notification dated 04.10.2023. The said notification is embodied in Annexure P-7, annexure whereof, is appended with CWP No.23649 of 2023, wherebys, the election programme became notified for conducting elections to the various local self-governments located within the territory of the State of Punjab.

3. In the writ petition supra, a challenge was made to the issuance of the said notification. The ground taken in the said writ petition related to an untenable delimitation of wards being made in respect of the areas falling within the respective domains of the Municipal Corporations of Ludhiana, Amritsar and Jalandhar. However, the supra ground taken therein became rejected through a decision becoming made, thus, on the supra writ petition along with connected therewith writ petitions (on 13.12.2024). The relevant paragraphs of the said judgment becomes extracted hereinbefore:-

“13. The learned counsels for the petitioner(s) submits, that the impugned de-limitation notification(s) are illegal, arbitrary and against the principles of natural justice, besides breach the Rule of audi alteram partem. Moreover, he submits that the impugned notification(s) transgresses the mandatory provisions of the 1976 Act, and, also breaches the prescribed procedure for de-limitation, as exists in the Punjab Delimitation of Wards of Municipal Corporation Order, 1995 besides causes breaches to the apposite provisions existing in the Election Rules, 1994. The allegedly breached provisions occurring in Section 7-A and

8 of the 1976 Act, are extracted hereinafter.

7-A. Power of Government to direct holding of general elections -

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and the rules made thereunder, the Government may, by notification, in the Official Gazette, direct that a general election or an election to fill a casual vacancy of the Councillors of the Corporation, shall be held by su