{"id":36882,"date":"2022-03-10T20:26:59","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T14:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/?p=36882"},"modified":"2022-03-10T20:27:34","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T14:57:34","slug":"section-73b-of-representation-of-people-act-1951-protects-its-duration-of-5-years-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/section-73b-of-representation-of-people-act-1951-protects-its-duration-of-5-years-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 73(b) of Representation of People Act, 1951 protects its duration of 5 years\u00a0– Advocate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Section 73(b) of Representation of People Act, 1951 protects its duration of 5 years\u00a0<\/strong>– Advocate Hement Kumar<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, outgoing CM Channi can recommend its earlier dissolution to Governor after State Cabinet nod<\/strong><\/p>\n

ECI notification for election\u00a0 of 5 Rajya Sabha seats from Punjab on Mar 14<\/strong><\/p>\n

As per composition of 15th Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Cong can win 4 to 5 seats<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, in 16th Vidhan Sabha, all 5 seats would go to AAP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chandigarh, 10 March (Shiv Narayan Jangra) Surpassing predictions of all Exit Polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by its Chief Ministerial candidate Bhagwant Mann has won a whopping 92 out of 117 Assembly seats in Punjab Assembly General Elections polling for which was conducted on Feb 20.<\/p>\n

\u00a0AAP Vote Share is 42% whereas Cong party has got merely 23% votes and only 18 seats which would however entitle the grand old party to get status of principal opposition party in 16th Punjab State Assembly. The SAD has got 3 while BJP has got 2 seats.<\/p>\n

Only this Monday on March\u00a07, the Election Commission of India (ECI)\u00a0 announced the schedule for biennial elections to 13 Rajya Sabha (RS) seats from 6 States including 5 seats from Punjab which are going to fall\u00a0 vacant in coming April.<\/p>\n

The 6 years term of 5 RS MPs from Punjab viz. Partap Singh Bajwa, SS Dhindsa, SS Dullo, Naresh Gujral and Shwait Malik who got elected in March, 2016 by then 14th Punjab Assembly\u00a0is due to complete on 9 April 2022.<\/p>\n

The notification for aforementioned elections would be issued on March 14 and the last date for making nominations would be till March 21. The scrutiny would be\u00a0 March 22 and\u00a0 last date for withdrawal of candidatures is March 24. The Polling and Counting would be done on 31st March and the election process would be completed by 2nd April.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court, Hemant Kumar, asserts\u00a0\u00a0that\u00a0 the term of the outgoing\u00a0or in other words the current\u00a015th Punjab Legislative Assembly\u00a0 as constituted in March, 2017 and whose first meeting was convened on 24 March 2017 is until 23 March 2022\u00a0as per Article 172 of Constitution of India.<\/p>\n

On the other hand after completion of counting\u00a0 on Mar 10, the ECI would issue the Statutory Notification in respect of all 117 newly elected Members (MLAs) of 16th Punjab Assembly under Section 73 of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1951\u00a0on or after 11 March 2022.<\/p>\n

Now amidst all this, the interesting but significant legal question which arises is that which of the two i.e. either the outgoing 15th Punjab Assembly or else newly constituted 16th Assembly would be the actual Electoral College for election of 5 RS seats\u00a0 from the State of Punjab ?\u00a0 The Press Note issued by the ECI on 7 March relating to declaration of Poll Schedule however is completely silent in this regard.<\/p>\n

Hemant\u00a0 legally asserts that as per Section 73(b) of RP Act, 1951, the issue of notification of 16th Punjab Assembly would not affect the duration of the outgoing 15th Assembly whose 5 years duration is\u00a0\u00a0until 23 March 2022 provided it is not dissolved earlier by the\u00a0State Governor albeit on the recommendation of outgoing Channi Cabinet.<\/p>\n

However, the tradition prevailing has been that after the ruling party or alliance suffers defeat at the hustings, its leader (read CM) convenes Cabinet meeting after which he\u00a0 tenders resignation and recommends to the Governor the immediate dissolution of Assembly notwithstanding its remaining duration which is usually a matter of days.<\/p>\n

5 years ago, then CM Parkash Singh Badal after facing debacle in 15th Punjab Assembly Elections also recommended to then Governor VPS Badnore the dissolution of erstwhile 14th Assembly on 12 March 2017 although its duration was till 18 March 2017. Now it would be interesting to watch if outgoing CM Channi would follow suit and recommend to Governor BL Purohit the dissolution of 15th Assembly whose 5 years normal duration otherwise is till 23rd March 2022.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hemant says that\u00a0 that since the nomination process for election to 5 RS seats from Punjab is schedule to begin\u00a0 from March 14 and continue till March 21 and scrutiny would be also done on March 22 and during this exercise, the outgoing 15th Punjab Assembly would be in existence although if not sooner dissolved, hence members (MLAs) of this very Assembly\u00a0 should have the legal right to elect 5 RS MPs from Punjab.<\/p>\n

Hemant cited an instance\u00a0 pertaining to\u00a0April, 2021 wherein during Biennial Elections\u00a0\u00a0to\u00a0 3 Rajya Sabha Elections from the State of Kerala,\u00a0members of outgoing Kerala Assembly and not upcoming new Assembly were allowed to vote after the intervention of Kerala High Court. The ECI after announcing the Poll Schedule in time\u00a0 had however stayed the Election process at the behest of the Union Law Ministry then.<\/p>\n

He says that as per current composition of 15th Punjab Assembly, the ruling Congress party might be able to\u00a0 possibly win 4 or perhaps all 5 Rajya Sabha seats from the State of Punjab for which elections are to be held separately for 3 seats and 2 seats since these seats belong to different biennial cycles as per mention in ECI’s Poll Schedule.<\/p>\n

Hemant reveals that\u00a0 such separate elections for 3 and 2 Rajya Sabha seats from State of Punjab seats has been happening since the year 1992. Actually due to President’s Rule in Punjab from June, 1987 to Feb, 1992, Rajya Sabha biennail polls could not be held in the year 1988 and 1990, hence\u00a0 3 and 2 seats from that years got carried forward to 1992 and this has been occurring\u00a0till date.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, since the strength of Congress party in outgoing 15th Assembly\u00a0 is effectively 70 plus\u00a0 and there seems to be no possibility of a joint or consensus candidate by two main opposition parties AAP and SAD, it is highly likely that they both these parties might not field a candidate due to lack of their numbers and in that event, the number of vacant seats to be filled (5\u00a0 in break up of 3 and 2) and candidates fielded by Congress may be equal and thus there would be no need for polling and all five Congress fiedled candidates can be declared elected on the last day of withdrawal of candidatures by Returning Officer.<\/p>\n

However, in the event of\u00a0 newly constituted 16th Punjab Vidhan Sabha is allowed to participate in such election, then all 5 RS seats would go to AAP considering its tally of 92 in the House.<\/p>\n

There are two more Rajya Sabha MPs from State of Punjab but their six years tenure is till July, 2022, hence election process would be declared by ECI in May-June 2022.<\/p>\n

Pertinent that in the last 6 years i.e. since 2016, there has been no Rajya Sabha (Biennial) Election from the State of Punjab. Thus the members of the outgoing 15th Punjab Assembly have not elected even a single Rajya Sabha member i.e. during its till date tenure of about five years which is completing on 23 March 2022.<\/p>\n

HEMANT KUMAR<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
M.A.(Pub Admn) LL.B<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
ADVOCATE,\u00a0<\/i><\/b>PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT, CHANDIGARH<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
# 414, SECTOR-7, URBAN ESTATE, AMBALA CITY, HARYANA<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
Cell Number : +91 9416 88 77 88<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Section 73(b) of Representation of People Act, 1951 protects its duration of 5 years\u00a0– Advocate Hement Kumar However, outgoing CM Channi can recommend its earlier dissolution to Governor after State Cabinet nod ECI notification for election\u00a0 of 5 Rajya Sabha seats from Punjab on Mar 14 As per composition of 15th Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Cong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36751,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9852,10243,14176,25,20,9919,1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-chandigarh","category-cover-story","category-english-news","category-india","category-politics","category-punjab","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36884,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882\/revisions\/36884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presskitaquat.com\/punjabi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}