The ongoing Panchayat elections in Haryana were put on hold on Tuesday (22 September 2015) as the state government refused to drop the eligibility criteria of education qualifications for contesting Panchayat elections, and asked the Supreme Court to decide whether there could be an educational qualification as an eligibility criteria for the candidates aspiring to contest the elections. The apex court bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre was told by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi (appearing for Haryana Government) that Haryana government would prefer the issue to be decided by the court, saying “We don’t want half-way house.” Accordingly, the Supreme Court directed deferring of the Panchayat elections till it decided the constitutional validity of the minimum educational qualifications for candidates at these elections.
“It is best to decide the issue one way or the other,” Rohatgi told the court which fixed Oct 7, 2015, for commencing the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the amendment to Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, providing for a spate of eligibility criteria including educational qualification for the candidate.
The election commission too told the court that it could not go ahead with the election process on the basis of its Sep 8 notification and would require to issue a fresh notification as it agreed with the Haryana government that let the issue be decided.
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