Allahabad HC orders fresh seat reservations in Panchayat polls

Lucknow: In a crucial judgement, the Lucknow Bench of the High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government to complete the fresh reservation system for seats in the Panchayat elections in next 10 days.

The High Court said that 2015 should be considered the year as the original year, and reservation should be implemented on its basis. The allocation of seats should be completed by March 25 the court said.

Earlier, the state government stated that it is ready to implement the reservation system, considering the year 2015 as the original year.

The division bench of Justice Rituraj Awasthi and Justice Manish Mathur passed the order to hold the three-tier panchayat elections by May 25.

The court was hearing the petitions challenging the government order of February 11, 2021. It was said in the petition that under Rule 4 of the Rules for the implementation of reservation in Panchayat elections, reservation is applied to the seats of Zilla Panchayat, Kshetra Panchayat and Gram Panchayat.

It was said that the elections of 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 were held, considering the year 1995 as the original year in relation to the implementation of reservation.

The petition stated government should take the basis of September 2015 for the reservation instead of 1995 as done.

The petition said that according to the census of 2001 and 2011, a large amount of demographic change had taken place, so it will not be appropriate to implement the reservation considering the year 1995 as the original year.

It was said that the order of February 11,2021 in which 1995 year was the basis of the reservation, which was opposed through this petition.

It was also said that the Panchayat elections of the year 2015 were also conducted as per the basis of September 16, 2015.(UNI)