Despite being a Union Territory, Chandigarh is perceived and conceived as the capital of Punjab, state’s advocate general Atul Nanda told the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday.
He was responding to a question posed by the high court on July 22 asking Punjab as well as Haryana to show when Chandigarh became the capital of the two states.
Nanda told court that in 1947, the capital of Punjab was shifted from Lahore to Shimla and subsequently then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru declared Chandigarh as capital of Punjab in 1950. The Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1952, defines Chandigarh as the capital of Punjab. The States Reorganisation Act, 1956, does not make any changes with the arrangement arrived at in 1952 and in 1966, though Punjab Re-Organisation Act, 1966, came into being and Chandigarh was made as Union territory but it the city retained its character of capital of Punjab, the advocate general submitted before the court. Nanda did not produce any notification in this regard but asserted that there was no requirement for the same.
Haryana advocate general BR Mahajan, who too was asked by the court to show how the city became capital of both the states, sought time from court. The matter stands deferred till August 29.
The bench of justice RK Jain and justice Arun Kumar Tyagi had posed the query during hearing of a petition by a judicial services aspirant.
The petitioner, Phool Singh, a resident of Chandigarh, qualified judicial services exam of both the states and figured in the merit list of both Punjab and Haryana under Scheduled Caste category. However, he was not being considered under the reserved category by both the states objecting to his domicile of Chandigarh.
His argument was that Chandigarh being capital of both the states, he is entitled for the reservation as per a recent Supreme Court judgment delivered in medical admissions in both the states.
