LUCKNOW, Oct. 31 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has sought a response from the state government after a recent Supreme Court ruling described the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986, as a "stillborn law", observing that a person cannot be punished under a legislation that does not create an independent offence. The court also stayed further proceedings under the said legislation in six petitions till the next date of hearing. Justice Rajeev Singh passed the order on Thursday while hearing six petitions challenging proceedings under the UP Gangsters Act, relying on the Supreme Court's judgment in Shiv Pratap Singh alias Chinu vs State of Uttar Pradesh. The petitioners pleaded that the Supreme Court had held that the law does not define any separate offence but provides definitions of a "gang" and a "gangster", along with punishment based on a gang chart. The petitioners also cited the Supreme Court's decision in 'Jyoti Suri versus State of Uttar Pradesh', claiming that proceedings had been quashed following that ruling. They further informed the high court that a petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Gangsters Act, titled Irfan Solanki versus State of Uttar Pradesh, was pending before the Supreme Court. On behalf of the state government, the additional government advocate advised the petitioners to approach the trial court with discharge applications. However, he did not dispute either the Supreme Court's judgment or the pendency of the Irfan Solanki matter. The HC directed the secretary of the state home department to file a counter-affidavit within three weeks. The petitioners were granted two weeks thereafter to file their rejoinder. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court sought the UP State Election Commission's response over alleged illegal deletion of names of 32 people from panchayat electoral roll in Balrampur. A division bench of justices Alok Mathur and Abdhesh Kumar Chaudhary passed the order on Oct 28 while hearing a petition filed by Santosh Kumar and 31 others, alleging their names had been illegally deleted during revision of the electoral roll. The petitioners submitted that their names were not included in the final panchayat electoral roll 2025 of gram panchayat Roopnagar, block Tulsipur, district Balrampur. Manoj Kumar Singh...