Showing serious displeasure with the state government's attitude towards conducting the urban local body polls in the state, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday asked the Chief Secretary to personally attend its next hearing.
The court of Justice Ananda Sen, in stern words, said that the state government is going around court orders and choking the rule of law in the state.
The court was considering a contempt petition, presented by outgoing civic corporator Roshni Khalkho, against the laggardness in conducting urban local body polls in the state. The court has scheduled the next hearing on July 25, 2025.
Significantly, the Jharkhand HC, during the hearing of a writ petition on January 4, 2024 had ordered the State Election Commission to release dates for holding Municipal Elections within a period of three weeks, but the urban local body elections remain due. Thus, the contempt petition was moved by Roshni Khalkho in the Jharkhand High Court.
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The elections in 34 state urban local bodies are held in abeyance since May 14, 2023. The state government has been repeatedly referring to the process of triple test for the delay in urban body elections, but the process has still not been finished.
Earlier, Roshni Khalkho and others had also approached the High Court with a petition against the government for failure to conduct the elections despite the completion of the term of the local urban bodies.
Significantly, elections for 34 municipal corporations of the state are awaited since May 14, 2020. In such a scenario, the running of Municipal bodies is being taken care of by the Municipal Commissioner, Additional Municipal Commissioner or their staff instead of the people's representatives.
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