Chandigarh: Giving a big relief to the Haryana Government, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed the petition challenging the Karnal Assembly seat by-election. With the cancellation of the petition, the way for the by-election has now been cleared.
During the hearing of the case, the Election Commission said that the decision of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court to cancel the by-election for the assembly seat of Akola in Maharashtra has been made the basis of the petition whereas we are going to challenge it in the Supreme Court. There too, an order has been issued to cancel the by-election as the assembly tenure is less than one year.
Kunal, a resident of Karnal, while filing the petition, told the High Court that on March 13, the then Chief Minister Manohar Lal had resigned from the post.
He resigned from the membership of the Assembly soon after passing the majority test in the Assembly the next day. With his resignation, the Karnal assembly seat became vacant. Meanwhile, Nayab Saini was made the Chief Minister of Haryana and the Election Commission issued notification of by-election for Karnal Assembly seat.
The petitioner said that according to Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, if the tenure of the Assembly is less than one year, then the Election Commission does not have the right to conduct by-elections.
The petitioner appealed to the High Court that the Karnal by-election should be cancelled. The Election Commission said that now the Commission is going to challenge the decision of the Bombay High Court by filing a special leave petition in the Supreme Court.