JYOTI DEEPAK CHAVAN Vs. ELECTION COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and, with the consent of the counsels for the parties, heard finally.

(2.) These petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, take exception to the order dated 30th October, 2015, passed by respondent no.1 - State Election Commission, cancelling the election process commenced by publication of a notice on 1st October 2015, for the election of Village Panchayat Khuneshwar, Taluka Mohol, District Solapur, under the provisions of Maharashtra Village Panchayat Act, 1959 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act of 1959"), a day prior to the actual polling, which was scheduled to be held on 1st November, 2015, and the subsequent order dated 4th November, 2015, whereby a fresh election programme for the election of Khuneshwar village panchayat came to be declared.

(3.) These petitions raise a seminal issue of the contours of the power of the State Election Commission in the matter of election to the panchayat constituted under Part IX of the Constitution of India. Whether the power of "superintendence and control" vested in the State Election Commission subsumes in its fold the power to cancel the entire election process in the wake of allegations of irregularities in accepting or rejecting the nominations, is the core question which these petitions pose, in the backdrop of the following facts: