Dehradun, July 15 -- The panchayat elections in the state will be held as per the schedule, as the Uttarakhand high court on Monday clarified that it has not issued any stay order on the ongoing electoral process. This comes as a major relief to the State Election Commission (SEC), which had approached the court seeking clarity on its earlier directive. The SEC on Monday filed a stay vacation application before a division bench headed by chief justice G Narender and justice Alok Mahra, stating that the July 11 order led to uncertainty regarding the conduct of elections. The commission urged the court to lift the stay. Sanjay Bhatt, representing the SEC in the matter, said that the bench has clarified that no stay had been imposed on the panchayat election process itself. "The court said it had stayed specifically the July 6 letter issued by the commission to the Chamoli district magistrate," he said. He further said the court's clarification allowed the commission to resume the process of allotting election symbols, which had been halted temporarily on Monday till 2 pm due to the court's July 11 order. He said the matter was mentioned before the court on Monday. He said following the HC's clarification, the SEC resumed the process of allotting election symbols at 2 pm. A revised notification was issued by the commission stating that the allocation of symbols would continue until 6 pm on Monday and resume on Tuesday as well, he said. On July 11, the HC had stayed the July 6 letter from the commission. In light of this, the commission had issued a notification on Sunday evening temporarily suspending the allotment of election symbols for the first phase of polling until 2 pm on Monday. The HC on Friday stayed the clarification issued by the SEC that allowed candidates with names in multiple electoral rolls to contest panchayat elections. The division bench held that the state election commission's clarification prima facie contravenes provisions of the Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj Act, 2016. The order came while hearing a writ petition filed by a Rudraprayag-based Shakti Singh Barthwal represented by counsels Abhijay Negi and Snigdha Tiwari, who raised concerns about the legality of candidates being permitted to file nominations despite having their names listed in more than one Gram Panchayat, Territorial Constituency, or Municipal Body electoral roll. Abhijay Negi said during the hearing on Friday, he had argued that the state election commission's July 6 clarification stating that "the nomination paper of a candidate will not be rejected only on the ground that his name is included in the electoral roll of more than one Gram Panchayat/Territorial Constituencies/Municipal Body", was inconsistent with the statutory mandate of Section 9(6) and 9(7) of the 2016 Act. Negi said these provisions clearly prohibit a person from being registered in the electoral roll in more than one territorial constituency and restrict such registration if a person is already listed in a municipal electoral roll, unless the earlier entry has been formally struck off. Abhijay Negi, counsel of Barthwal said that SEC had filed a stay vacation application on Monday, but the court didn't vacate the stay, saying that they have not stayed the election process, only the July 6 letter has been stayed. The next hearing in the matter will be on August 11 The voting for the first phase of the panchayat elections in 12 districts (excluding Haridwar) will be held on July 24, followed by the second phase on July 28. The counting of votes will take place on July 31. Dates for Haridwar are yet to be announced. According to the state election commission, across 89 development blocks in 12 districts, the elections will take place to elect 55,587 village panchayat members, 7,499 village panchayat heads (pradhans), 2,974 block development council members, and 358 district (zilla) panchayat members. Over 4.77 million voters will exercise their franchise in the panchayat elections - an increase of 10.57% from the 2019 panchayat elections. As per the breakup, 2.31 million of the total are female voters, and 2.46 million are male voters The nomination process for the first phase has already been completed....