B BASAVARAJA Vs. ELECTION AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by the order of the Election Officer, Bargur village Panchayat in Sira Taluk, Tumkur District, rejecting his nomination paper for election to the Bargur Group Panchayat.

(2.) When the matter came up for preliminary hearing, I directed the Government Advocate to take notice on behalf of respondents 1 and 2 in view of urgency. Accordingly Sri B. B. Mandappa, learned High Court Government Pleader took notice and appeared for respondents 1 and 2. By consent of the parlies this petition is taken up for final hearing. Sri B. B. Mandappa, learned High Court Government Pleader raised a preliminary objection regarding the maintainability of the writ petition under Art. 226(1) (b) and (c) of the Constitution. I overrule the said objection following the decision in W.P. No. 5014 of 1978(1).

(3.) The only ground on which the. Election Officer has rejected the nomination paper of the petitioner is that the proposer, who signed the nomination of the petitioner has not put his initials while affixing his signature. No one has objected to the identity of the proposer and it is not stated by the Election Officer that the name of the proposer does not appear in the voters list of the constituency in respect of which the nomination is filed. The proposer's name is included in the voters list and he has signed the nomination paper. The mere fact that initials are not put while affixing the signature can by no stretch of imagination be considered as substantial non-compliance with rule 8 of the Rules. In this behalf it is necessary to point out that sub-rule (3) of rule 12 reads as follows: - "The Election Officer shall - not reject any nomination paper on the ground of any defect which is not of substantial character". The reason given by the Election Officer for rejecting the nomination paper of the petitioner, cannot be considered as constituting defect of a substantial character. Therefore, in rejecting the nomination paper the Election Officer has violated sub- rule (5) of rule 12 of the Rules.