Uttar Pradesh High Court Seeks Response on Conducting Timely Panchayat Elections

UP Panchayat Chunav: The Allahabad High Court has sought response from the State Election Commission and the state government on a plea for timely conduct of Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh. A division bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Siddharth Nandan, while hearing Imtiyaz Hussain's plea, said that under Article 243E of the Constitution of India, the term of Panchayats is for a period of five years from their first meeting and cannot be extended beyond that. The petitioner said that the first meeting of Gram Panchayats of Uttar Pradesh was held on May 27, 2021, according to which their five-year term is ending on May 26, 2026. It was also stated that the State Election Commission has revised the dates of publication of electoral rolls several times. Earlier the process was to be completed in December 2025, which has been extended to March 2026 and now through the latest notification. The petitioner had said that the process of reservation of constituencies after the finalization of the electoral rolls would also take a long time, so that the elections could not be held at the same time as the Vinod Upadhyay case.