Rajasthan HC holds late-night hearings, protects councillors from arrest | India News

The Rajasthan High Court constituted special benches and held hearings late on Sunday night to consider urgent petitions seeking protection from arrest for councillors and candidates ahead of mayoral polls in the state.The court granted interim protection to nine councillors from Hanumangarh and Congress councillor Maqsood Ahmed from Bikaner. Lawyers said the proceedings were among the rare instances in which the high court heard petitions late at night on a holiday.Elections for mayors and chairpersons are scheduled on Monday in 273 urban local bodies, including the municipal corporations of Bikaner, Pali, Ajmer, Udaipur and Alwar. Voting in the Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota municipal corporations will be held on September 25.Several councillors and candidates approached the high court, apprehending arrest in cases registered shortly before the elections.Also Read: BJP sweeps HC-monitored Abohar mayoral electionsSpecial benches were constituted on the directions of Chief Justice Sanjay K Agrawal.A single bench of Justice Nupur Bhati began hearing the petition filed on behalf of nine Hanumangarh councillors at 10pm, with the proceedings continuing past midnight, and subsequently stayed their arrest.Notably, of the 60 seats in the Hanumangarh civic body, the BJP has won 15, while candidates supported by Independent MLA Ganeshraj Bansal reportedly secured 32 seats. Bansal’s supporters alleged that police detained him on Sunday in connection with a 23-year-old land-lease case without officially informing his family. The police did not issue an official statement. His supporters later took to the streets in protest.In another late-night hearing, Justice Sunil Beniwal, with special permission from the Chief Justice, considered the petition of Maqsood Ahmed, the Congress councillor from Bikaner’s Ward 18 and a former Urban Improvement Trust chairman.The court stayed Ahmed’s arrest at around 11:15pm and directed him to appear for questioning on September 30. The matter will next be heard on October 8. His counsel, Bhavya Gautam, said the order will allow Ahmed to participate in the mayoral election.The petition questioned the timing of the police action. Kotgate police had issued notices asking Ahmed and Ward 50 councillor Navratna Daga to appear at 10am on September 21, when voting for the mayoral election is scheduled.Earlier on Sunday, the High Court granted interim protection from arrest to Tejpal Mirdha, a councillor and former chairman of Kuchera Municipality in Nagaur, and Sushil Mirdha, alias Bittu Mirdha, a candidate for the chairperson’s post in Srivijaynagar Municipality.A special bench of Justice Kuldeep Mathur protected Tejpal Mirdha from arrest until the next hearing in a case registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. Mirdha, elected from Kuchera’s Ward 21 on September 14, subsequently filed his nomination for the chairperson’s post.The ACB registered an FIR against him on September 18 over alleged irregularities dating back to his tenure as Kuchera municipal chairman between 2015 and 2018. The case stems from a complaint filed by then-councillor Shaitanram Tak on May 4, 2018, alleging collusion in the issuance of work orders, financial and administrative irregularities and misuse of government funds.The court observed that it was not satisfactorily clear at this stage why proceedings arising from the 2018 complaint had remained pending for nearly eight years and why approval under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act was granted only on September 18, after Mirdha had been elected as a councillor and filed his nomination for chairperson.Also Read: BJP cries foul as AAP nominee declared Abohar mayor, poll deferredHowever, the court did not express a final opinion on whether the FIR amounted to unlawful interference in the electoral process or constituted legitimate legal action.In the elections to 10,244 wards across 309 urban local bodies, the BJP won 4,182 seats, the Congress 3,619 and Independents 2,273. The remaining seats went to parties including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (Marxist and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP).Jaipur, Kota and Jodhpur are not part of this phase, as elections for their mayoral posts will be held on September 25.