Governor sets civic poll ball rolling after Gwalior HC nod

BHOPAL/INDORE: After Gwalior civic polls got the green signal on Thursday, decks are now clear for civic polls in Jabalpur and Chhindwara too. An unwell Governor, Ram Naresh Yadav, issued a notification for municipal corporation elections to these urban bodies from his hospital bed, said sources. Raj Bhawan's hurried nod came just hours after the Gwalior high court bench on Thursday dismissed a petition challenging merger of 60 villages in municipal area of Gwalior Municipal Corporation (GMC).This came as a shot in the arm for state government, which was embarrassed after civic polls in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and Singrauli were deferred due to cancellation of notification of expansion of city limits by high court.
Of 16 municipal corporations, 10 are currently going to polls. Elections have been delayed in remaining municipal corporations on technical grounds. Collectors had wrongly issued notifications that were deemed improper and the ball was in Raj Bhawan's court.
Earlier, double bench of Justice S K Gangele and Justice C Nagu observed no error has been committed under the jurisdiction of law while expanding municipal area of GMC. And the petition filed by one Rajesh Babu was dismissed.
The government was planning to approach Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the Indore and Jabalpur bench of high court to cancel expansion of city limits.
On Tuesday, Indore bench had cancelled notification for merger of 29 villages into Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) and civic body election in Indore scheduled for November 28 was cancelled.
Division bench of Justices P K Jaiswal and Prakash Shrivastav observed that merger of 29 villages in IMC was done in violation of law and excluded newly merged areas from municipal corporation. With this, wards in IMC came down to 69 from 85, in which elections were scheduled.
Petitioner Anil Trivedi said court rejected the argument of state government that election should not be stopped after announcement of schedule. "Court observed that hearing was completed on October 31, but state government extended the pronouncement of judgment on pretext of presenting few more reference of previous cases and announced election dates on November 2," said Trivedi.