In the case of the panchayat elections in Punjab, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down the request, insisting that interrupting the process after the voting has begun would cause “anarchy.” A bench headed by CJI Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud explained the importance of judicial restraint in all election-related cases and categorically rejected the prayer to issue any interim order staying the polling, which started at 8 am that day. “If the votes have been cast and say the count has started, how can we halt the election? It may be so that the high court woke up to the harshness of its earlier order and, therefore, vacated the stay,” added Chief Justice S.K. Chandrachud and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
The bench went further in stressing that where stay-on elections are to be made, extreme care must be taken by judicial bodies as the outcomes may be unexpected. “It is pertinent for courts to be extremely reluctant to intervene in matters concerning elections. If someone wanted a stay on a parliamentary election after the polling had started – think what would happen if that were to occur,” the Chief Justice further said.
This decision was made following a passionate appeal by a battery of lawyers who wanted the panchayat elections stopped, following what they said was a lifting of the stay by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday, October 14. The appellants argued that no voting had taken place since the stay was put in place on October 9, while on November 28, the High Court lifted the stay and allowed the elections to go on.
It is in line with a time-honored precept of the court which has emphasized the need for the judiciary not to usurp the powers of the other branches of government in an attempt to direction elections. A particular notion of judicial self-restraint has been characteristic of Indian law in electoral affairs. The Supreme Court has earlier repeated this ruling in cases like Lakshmi Charan Sen vs AKM Hassan Uzzaman (1985) and other cases.
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