MARUTIBEN DHUDABHAI GAMAR Vs. STATE ELECTION COMMISSION    

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Ms. Jhaveri, learned AGP waives service of notice of rule on behalf of the respondent no.1 State. Ms. Roopal Patel, learned advocate waives service of notice of rule on behalf of the respondent no.2. By consent, rule is fixed forthwith.

(2.) Heard learned counsels for the parties. The petitioner who happened to be the candidate aspiring to be contestant in Election of Bhabhar Taluka Panchayat pursuant to the Notification dated 31 st January 2018 has approached this Court by way of this petition with following prayers.

(3.) The facts in brief as could be gathered from the memo and the annexed documents would indicate that the elections for the Taluka Panchayat in question alongwith other panchayats inter alia scheduled to be held on 21st February 2018, the schedule is produced at page no.21 as could be seen from the notification in which it is mentioned that the date of notification is 31st January 2018. The last date of accepting the nomination form is 8th February 2018, the date of the scrutiny is happened to be 9th February 2018 and the withdrawal date is 10th February 2018. The voting is to take place on 21 st February 2018. The petitioner filled in her nomination form along with requisite documents. However, as the petitioner was desirous of contesting on the seat which was reserved for the schedule tribe woman candidate, she had to submit the certificate indicating that she belong to schedule tribe. Accordingly, the certificate was produced and during the scrutiny i.e. 9 th February 2018, the concerned officer noticed that there was a discrepancy in the name of the petitioner which the petitioner had explained by way of an affidavit, which is placed on record and that affidavit indicated that though she belong to schedule caste, she had married to Shri Kanaiyalal Shah, who was not a member of schedule caste and therefore, after marriage she had to mentioned husband's name and that is the reasons for non matching with the name in other records i.e. the voter's list.