Nainital, Jan 10 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court on Friday, while hearing the petitions challenging the Reservation Rules 2024 issued for the conduct of the upcoming municipal elections, asked the state government to file a reply affidavit within four weeks.

The single bench of Justice Rakesh Thapliyal did not give any interim order after the hearing and asked the government to file a reply affidavit within four weeks.

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Earlier, during the hearing, the petitioners said that while issuing the reservation notification, the state government ignored the rules and after the notification was issued, the election schedule was also announced the same evening.

The petition said that due to this the petitioners did not get a chance to object to it.

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The petitioners said that under the rules, there is a provision to raise objections after the announcement of reservation and the state government and the Election Commission did not follow this rule. The petition stated that seats with less than 10,000 OBC and ST population should not be reserved, instead seats with higher population should be reserved.

According to this, Almora seat, which has less population of OBC and ST, should not have been reserved but places like Dehradun and Haldwani, which have higher population, should have been reserved.

On the other hand, the state government said that the roster of reservation has been fully implemented as per the provisions of the Uttarakhand (Uttar Pradesh Nagar Palika Act, 1916) Amendment Act notified on September 20 last year.

The state government also argued that the seats have been reserved as per Article 243 T of the Constitution of India.

The government also said that this petition is not maintainable as it should have been filed as an election petition.

The next hearing in the case will be on March 3.

The elections for 11 municipal corporations, 43 municipal councils and 46 nagar panchayats of the state will be held on January 23. Counting of votes will be done on January 25.

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