NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday in its order refused to stay the ongoing panchayat elections in Punjab, saying there will be 'chaos' if courts start staying elections on polling day.
"How can we stay it now? Polls must have begun now. Suppose we stay now there will be complete chaos. Staying conduct of elections is a grave thing," a three-judge bench of the apex court, led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud observed and refused to entertain a batch of appeals.
The appeal before the top court was filed by a slew of petitioners challenging the order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which had on Monday rejected around 800 petitions alleging irregularities in the panchayat elections.
The bench of the top court also agreed with the Punjab and Haryana HC order and said that probably, the high court realised the gravity of its previous order and vacated the stay.
The bench also comprised Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
"This is an unusual democracy also where we value the elections. There are remedies in the form of the election petition," the CJI said.
"Tomorrow someone will want to stay parliamentary elections like this. We will list (the petition) but no interim stay," the CJI made it clear in its order on Tuesday.
The batch of the petitions in the apex court alleged irregularities in the nomination process of the elections. The High Court while refusing to stay the polls, ordered videography of the elections for the panchayats.
The Punjab government had argued before the High Court that petitions were not maintainable.
The bench of the apex court also expressed its inclination to not staying the polls and said that the judicial bodies should exercise utmost caution in staying elections, as doing so could lead to unintended consequences. “Courts must be very slow in interfering with elections. Imagine if someone sought a stay on a parliamentary election after polling began, consider the consequences of that," the apex court said.