The High Court of Uttarakhand has directed the State Government to hold Municipal Corporation of Roorkee and Selaqui Nagar Panchayat elections within two months based on the 2015 delimitation. The division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice Alok Kumar Verma issued these directions on Tuesday.
The former mayor of Roorkee, Yashpal Rana and four others had filed a petition in the high court stating that in 2015 the state government had included Padli and Rampur Gujar in the municipal corporation but later in December 2018, a notification was issued to remove these two villages from the municipal corporation area and bring three other villages under the purview of the municipal corporation. The petitioners had stated that the actions of the state government were a violation of the regulations. They had also stated that once any village is brought under the purview of the municipal corporation, there is no provision for removing it from the municipal corporation area. Further, it was stated in the petition that the government did not communicate any reason to the villagers for taking their villages out of the purview of the municipal corporation due to which elections have not been held yet for this municipal corporation. Quashing the government’s December 2018 notification, the high court has directed the state government to hold the local body elections within two months on the basis of the 2015 delimitation.