The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the ongoing panchayat elections in Punjab on grounds of alleged irregularities in the nomination process, saying there will be “chaos” if courts start staying elections on polling day.
“If polling has started today, how can we intervene at this stage? Probably the high court realised the gravity of it and vacated the stay on the elections,” the bench, which also comprised justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said.
“There will be chaos if we stay the polling that too on the polling day,” the CJI said.
The top court, however, agreed to hear the pleas challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court decision allowing panchayat polls in Punjab.
At the outset, a lawyer said the polling has started today and the high court disposed of around 1,000 petitions without a full fledged hearing.
“You can always challenge the (poll) results…How can we stay it now and the polls must have begun now. Suppose we stay now, there will be complete chaos. Staying the conduct of elections is a grave thing,” the CJI said.