| BJP govt, ECI defying Apex Court rulings on Assembly Elections: Harsh Dev | | |  Early Times Report
CHENANI, Nov 5: Pointing towards the judgements of the Supreme Court mandating timely conduct of Assembly Elections in States where legislative assemblies are prematurely dissolved, Harsh Dev Singh, Former Minister and Chairman AAP J&K State Co-ordination Committee today accused the GoI and ECI of defying the orders of the Apex Court for vested interests. He said that the Supreme Court in its judgement of September 2018 had ruled, that process of conducting Assembly Elections in States where pre-mature dissolution of lower House took place, needed to be completed within a period of six months from the date of dissolution of the said House. He said that the J&K Assembly having been dissolved on November 21, 2018, the Elections to state Assembly ought to have been completed before May 21, 2019 in terms of the ruling of the SC which however was not done for political and personal expediencies of helmsman at the centre and state. This amounted to violation of the orders of the SC for which the ECI needed to atleast give a convincing explanation. In the absence of any statement from the top Election body of the country, the political observers were becoming sceptical about a possible nexus between GoI and ECI. He was addressing public meetings in villages Bali, Moud and adjoining localities in Chenani constituency today.
Harsh Dev said that ECI had declined to hold simultaneous polls for J&K Assembly alongwith Parliament in April 2019 claiming that the CENTRAL govt had expressed its inability to provide the security forces in requisite strength to hold elections in the troubled state. And all this notwithstanding the tall pronouncements being repeatedly made by the PM Modi proposing simultaneous polls of Assemblies and Parliament all across the country and then blaming the opposition for not agreeing to the proposition. Accusing the centre and ECI of deliberately delaying popular govt in J&K, Singh further ridiculed the statements of top BJP leaders appearing in the media on regular basis that the ECI has to take a call on the timing of elections in J&K.
Singh said that the in-ordinate delay in restoration of democratic govt in J&K was not only unconstitutional but also amounted to contempt of the highest Court of the county. He divulged that even in its latest judgment announced in January 2022 pertaining to the state of Maharashtra, the Supreme Court re-iterated that "there is statutory obligation to fill Assembly seats within six months so as to ensure that the people are not deprived of due representation". "You can't create a constitutional void, a hiatus situation for the constituencies", the Supreme Court has again observed adding further that it is the people who eventually suffer in the absence of an elected representative to espouse their cause. It therefore is a punishment to the people, said Singh while quoting the Judgment of the Apex Court of the country.
Seeking for early restoration of democratically elected govt in the state, Singh said that regular protests shall be lodged for unreasonably and unjustifiably failing to hold Elections in J&K in conformity with the rulings of the said Court.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Manju Singh, Col. (rtd) Som Raj Sharma, Rampaul Bhagat, Ashri Devi, Rajesh Verma, Jeevan Singh besides others. |
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