NARSINHBHAI GOVINDBHAI RANK Vs. DEVSHI LAXMIDAS DEDANIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two petitions though filed by two different persons and in respect of two separate prayers can be conveniently disposed of together because in the former the Sarpanchs election is challenged while in the other the election of the member from Ward No. 8 of that village is challenged. The common features of this election are the challenge to the electoral roll.

(2.) The Village Panchayat concerned is Ramlechi Gram Panchayat in Junagadh District. The Respondent No. 3 in both these petitions is the Mamlatdar of Talala Taluka who was appointed as the Specified Officer under sec. 21 of the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act for brevitys sake). In the former petition No. 1774 of 1975 the first respondent Devshi Laxmidas was declared elected as the Sarpanch on his having allegedly secured 529 votes as against his rival the second respondent who was found to have secured 384 votes. In the Special Civil Application No. 1790 of 1975 the second respondent in that petition Lakshmidas Bhovan Padalia is said to have secured 72 votes in that Ward No. 8 whereas the first respondent Kanji Hira Kansagra is said to have secured 81 votes. Obviously the first respondent was declared elected by the third respondent who was also the Returning Officer. In the first case election is challenged on the ground that the voters list stood vitiated because of the wrongful inclusion in all of 274 voters in the voters list for the entire village. In the second petition it was alleged that 70 persons were added in the list wrongfully and that too in the face of the prohibition contained in sec. 21(6) of the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 Additions in the voters list as complained of in the former petition are also said to have been effected in flagrant violation of the mandate of sub-sec. (6) of sec. 21 of the Act. This is the factual background of both these cases.

(3.) It is complained in both these petitions that the third respondent Mamlatdar had misconstrued the provisions of sec. 21 in respect of the list of voters. For the sake of convenience I reproduce sec. 21 below as it was before its substitution by Gujarat Act No. 18/78:-