Shimla, April 19 -- The Himachal Pradesh high court on Saturday upheld the Mandi deputy commissioner's decision to disqualify a gram panchayat pradhan for six years for concealing details of a pending criminal case in his nomination papers.

"He has been declared disqualified not for the nature of offence involved in criminal case pending against him or for conviction or gravity of offence, but he has been declared disqualified for false declaration made in Nomination Form which must be taken seriously," ruled the division bench of justice Vivek Singh Thakur and justice Ranjan Sharma while dismissing a petition filed by Basant Lal.

The petitioner challenged the Mandi DC's order, which barred him from contesting panchayat polls for six ye...