COLLECTOR, BULDANA Vs. SHAMA TUKARAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for review of an order passed by a Division Bench of this Court in Special Civil Application No. 619 of 1987 on 11 -7 -1967 [Shama Tukaram, v. Collector, Buldana (1).] One of us (Abhyankar J.) was a party to the Bench delivering the order. In that petition, a grievance was made that the programme for elections to the Village Panchayats in different villages including the village of Wadner Bholji was altered by the Mamlatdar and the dates originally fixed were so altered as to prejudice the rights of candidates or intending candidates who wanted to contest the election. One of the contentions urged before the Division Bench was that the authority to fix dates of various stages of election under rule 7 of the Bombay Village Panchayats Election Rules, 1959, promulgated under the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1968, was vested in the Mamlatdar but it was argued that under rule 2 (3) the word "Mamlatdar" has been defined. That definition originally was as follows:

(2.) THE election programme concerned therein was promulgated under the notification dated 8 -6 -1967 by Mr. A. G. Dhote, the then Tahsildar, Malkapur. This petition at the instance of the Collector, Buldana, seeks a review of this order so far as the observations of the Division Bench as regards the respective powers of the Mamlatdar and the Block Development Officer for fixing the dates of election and drawing up an election programme are concerned. It has now been brought to our notice that the original definition of "Mamlatdar" in rule 2 (3) has been amended by Notification No. VPA. 1163/81393 -P. dated 23 -12 -1963 issued by the Co -operation and the Rural Development Department. Under this notification, the proviso to sub -rule (3) of rule 2 has been deleted. The effect of the deletion of the proviso is that the Block Development Officer in the area is no longer equated with the office of Mamlatdar, and the Block Development Officer could not, after 23 -121963, either fix an election programme or alter the dates of election programme. The view taken in that decision of the Division Bench therefore is obviously not correct because that decision was given on the basis of a provision of the rule which was repealed prior to the decision and also prior to the fixation of the election programme for the village concerned.