Elected office bearer can’t be kept under suspension indefinitely: Punjab & Haryana High Court

Read Order: Sukhvir Kaur v. State of Punjab and others 

LE Correspondent

Chandigarh, July 13, 2021: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has reinstated a suspended Sarpanch, observing that an elected office bearer cannot be kept under suspension indefinitely.

Setting aside the order of suspension, the high court directed the regular inquiry pending against the petitioner to be completed expeditiously.

The high court was hearing a matter, wherein the petitioner, Sukhvir Kaur, an elected Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Dhurali, Block Kharar, Mohali was placed under suspension on September 21, 2020 on the allegations that she blocked the passage of water through a culvert on account of earth work and also facilitated the cutting of 2-3 trees in the village cremation ground.

The order of her suspension was passed by the Director, Rural Development and Panchayat, Punjab, which was affirmed on appeal by the Additional Chief Secretary on April 1, 2021.

The petitioner’s stand was that the earth work was carried out in 2018 by the youth club before she was elected as Sarpanch and that certain branches of trees had fallen due to a storm, which were lying on the plot. 

The Bench of Justice Anil Kshetarpal held: “The petitioner has remained under suspension for nearly a period of 10 months. An elected office bearer cannot be kept under suspension indefinitely.”

The judge further added that “the suspension of an elected office bearer cannot be ordered in routine. As per Part IX of the Constitution of India, Gram Panchayats are envisioned to be the institutions of self governance equated with the Legislature of the State. Still further, prima facie the allegations against the petitioner do not warrant her continuous suspension. The officials of the State have no reason to keep the inquiry pending in order to oust the office bearer in an indirect manner.”