LUCKNOW: The order by Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court granting interim stay on seat reservation proceedings by the state government may delay the three-tier rural local body elections in Uttar Pradesh, which were scheduled to be held in April-May.A two-member bench, comprising Justice Rituraj Awasthi and Justice Manish Mathur, granted the interim stay while hearing a PIL filed by one Ajay Kumar and issued notices to the State Election Commission and the state government to file their replies by the next date of hearing on March 15.
The petitioner had challenged the February 11 government order which had fixed 1995 as the base year for rotating the reserved seats in village, blocks and district local bodies. He claimed that it was in violation of an earlier order dated September 15, which had fixed 2015 as the base year. The last polls were held as per the September 2015 order, the petitioner pleaded.
Subsequent to HC order, the state government has issued orders to the panchayati raj department and all district magistrates to stop the rotation of reserved seats till further orders. In its earlier order, the Allahabad High Court had slammed the state government for inordinate delay in holding panchayat polls and had directed it to complete the rotation of reserved seats by March 17 and finish the election process of gram panchayats by April 30 and those of blocks and zila panchayats by May 15.
Akhilesh booked over alleged assault on journalists
A case has been registered against Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav and 20 party workers in connection with alleged assault on some journalists in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad, police said on Saturday.
An FIR was registered at Pakhwara police station late on Friday night under various sections of the IPC on the basis of a complaint by a journalist, officials said.
According to the complainant, Yadav, the former Uttar Pradesh CM, was irked by a few personal question posed by some journalists during an interaction at a hotel on March 11 after a press conference.
Following this, Yadav allegedly instigated his security guards and aides to attack the journalists, the FIR claimed.