Dehradun, June 29 -- A day after Uttarakhand high court lifted the stay on panchayat elections and directed that the election process be resumed, the state election commission (SEC) on Saturday announced a revised schedule. As per a fresh notification, 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. The state election commission had earlier issued a notification on June 21 announcing the schedule for the panchayat election. As per the notification, the polling was to be conducted in two phases - on July 10 and July 15 -- with counting on July 19. However, the election process was halted following the high court stay on June 23. The high court had stayed the three-tier panchayat elections in the state while hearing separate petitions filed by Ganesh Datt Kandpal and Virendra Singh Butola, who pointed out that the reservation rules framed by the state had not been officially notified in the government gazette, rendering the entire process invalid. On June 27, the high court vacated the stay on panchayat elections and ordered the state election commission to resume the process. The court decision came from a division bench comprising chief justice G Narender and justice Alok Mahra. Appearing for the government, Advocate General SN Babulkar and Chief Standing Counsel CS Rawat argued that the reservation process followed all constitutional and legal norms. The petitioners, however, contended that the reservation of several seats was flawed and repetitive, violating principles of fairness. SN Babulkar informed the court that a Supreme Court judgment bars the courts from intervening in the electoral process once a notification has been issued. State election commissioner Sushil Kumar said, "As per the new schedule, nominations will be accepted from July 2 to July 5. The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from July 7 to July 9." He said that the dates for the withdrawal of nominations are July 10 and 11. The allotment of symbols for the first phase of elections will take place on July 14 and second phase on July 18. 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 (zila) panchayat members. Over 477,700 voters will exercise their franchise in the panchayat elections - an increase of 10.57% from 2019 panchayat elections. As per the breakup, 231,000 are women voters, and 246,500 are men voters....