AMARPAL Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner before this Court is a member of Gram Sabha Barwala, Tehsil Bajpur, District Udham Singh Nagar. He has challenged the election of the private respondent no. 4 as the Gram Pradhan of Gram Sabha Barwala. The challenge of the petitioner rests on his contention that the seat of Gram Pradhan, Barwala was reserved for the members of Scheduled Castes community, whereas the private respondent no. 4 Smt. Santosh does not belong to the Scheduled Castes community and, in fact she belongs to the Other Backward Castes (OBC) community. In this connection, an enquiry was conducted by the Scrutiny Committee which came to the conclusion that the private respondent no. 4 does not belong to Scheduled Castes community and cancelled the caste certificate issued to the private respondent no. 4. Pursuant to this, the District Magistrate passed an order on 12.8.2016 and thereby removed the private respondent no. 4 from the post of Gram Pradhan.

(2.) The aforementioned orders of the Scrutiny Committee dated 9.6.2016 and the order of the District Magistrate dated 18.2016 were challenged by the private respondent no. 4 before this Court by filing the Writ Petition (M/S) No. 3374/2016. Meanwhile, Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Government of Uttarakhand vide her order dated 11.7.2017 (Annexure No. 11 to the writ petition) cancelled the aforesaid order of the District Magistrate, pursuant to which the private respondent no. 4 moved an application for withdrawal of her writ petition (WPMS 3374/2016) whereupon the said writ petition was dismissed as withdrawn on 13.7.2017.

(3.) Petitioner has challenged the order dated 11.7.2017 passed by the Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Government of Uttarakhand and other two consequential orders.