Chandigarh – the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the Poll Schedule for General Election to 15th Haryana Legislative Assembly which is going to commence from issuance of requisite statutory notification coupled with initiation of process of filing of nominations by prospective candidates on 5 Sep 2024 which would continue till 12 Sep 2024. The scrutiny of nominations would be done on 13 Sep and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is 16 Sep. The date of Polling, which was originally fixed for 1 Oct, was recently changed to 5 Oct and the counting is scheduled on 8 Oct.Meanwhile, Hemant Kumar, an Advocate at Punjab & Haryana High Court has written to Droupadi Murmu, President of India and Bandaru Dattatraya, Governor of Haryana as well as Chief Minister of Haryana who is also the Leader of the House ( read current 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha) for ensuring Strict Compliance of Article 174(1) of the Constitution of India by the State Government of Haryana.
The Advocate asserted that the previous Session of current 14th Haryana Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha), which was actually a one-day Special Session and which was summoned for seeking the Vote of Confidence by the incumbent Chief Minister of Haryana, Nayab Singh Saini, got convened on 13 March 2024.
The Advocate told that Article 174 (1) of the Constitution of India clearly stipulates that the Governor shall from time to time summon the House or each House of the Legislature of the State to meet at such time and place as he thinks fit, but six months shall not intervene between its last sitting in one session and the date appointed for its first sitting in the next session.
Hence, as per mandate of Article 174(1) of Constitution of India, the next Session of the current 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha is to be summoned before 12 September 2024 i.e. well within the period of six months as reckoned from previous Session of Vidhan Sabha which was summoned on 13 March 2024.
Nevertheless, although ECI vide exercise of powers conferred upon it by virtue of Article 324 of the Constitution of India can very much announce and issue the time schedule for conducting next Assembly General Elections to the State of Haryana however the same would not in any way affect the Constitutional Obligation/Requirement of the Haryana Government so as to get summoned from the State Governor the constitutionally mandated next Session of the current 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha, whose normal 5 years tenure is up to 3 November 2024, asserted Hemant. In other words, even the prevalence of Model Code of Conduct would not be an embargo for summoning of the next Assembly Session on or before 12 Sep 2024.
Hemant has also duly quoted a Judgment of Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India in support of his contention viz. Special Reference Case 1 of 2002 – Under Article 143(1) of the Constitution of India ( Decision dated 28 Oct 2002) which laid down that the provisions of Article 174 are mandatory in character so far as the time period between two sessions is concerned in respect of live Assemblies and not dissolved Assemblies. Article 174 and Article 324 operate in different fields. However, Article 174 is not relatable to a dissolved Assembly.
In view of the above, if the ruling Nayab Singh Saini led BJP Government in Haryana still doesn’t wants to get next session of current Haryana Assembly summoned on or before 12 Sep 2024, then it can take wisely take a call on getting the incumbent 14th Haryana Vidhan Sabha prematurely dissolved from the Governor and in that case, it would no longer be mandatory for summoning of session of current State Assembly on or before 12 Sep 2024, asserted Hemant.