‘There will be mayhem if we…’: Supreme Court refuses to halt ongoing polling for Punjab Panchayat elections

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the ongoing panchayat elections in Punjab, saying there will be “chaos” if courts start staying elections on polling day.

Polling for the panchayat elections began at 8 am on Tuesday in the state and the petitions, seeking a stay, were mentioned before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.

“If the voting has started today, how can we intervene in this phase? The high court probably realized the gravity of this and vacated the stay on the election,” said the bench, which also comprised Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

“There will be chaos if we stay to vote on polling day as well,” the CJI said.

The top court, however, agreed to hear the pleas challenging the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court allowing panchayat polls in Punjab.

In a major development, the Punjab and Haryana High Court recently dismissed around 1,000 petitions seeking cancellation of panchayat elections.

Earlier, the high court had suspended the election process.

(This news has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency channel – PTI)