TARABAI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner challenges the order dated 28-4-1989 of the Election Officer disqualifying the petitioner from contesting the election for the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat of village Chikni, Tahsil Warora, District Chandrapur. The elections were scheduled to be held on the 13th May 1989.

(2.) THE nomination paper for contesting the election from Gandhi Ward No. 1 of the said village Chikni was filed in by the petitioner and the same came to be rejected on the ground that the petitioner had incurred a disqualification under section 14 (1) (h) of the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, in that she was a member of the joint Hindu family consisting of hereself and her husband Krushnadas Mathankar and house property standing in the name of the said Krushnadas at Village Khapri, within the jurisdiction of the Gram Panchayat, Khapri, was in arrears of Gram Panchayat taxes amounting to Rs. 126/- for a period of six years and that she was as a member of an undivided joint Hindu family, as such, disqualified from contesting the said election. Aggrieved by the said order the petitioner has filed this petition seeking a Writ of Certiorari and for other appropriate writs in that nature, for quashing the order dated 28-4-1989 rejecting her nomination paper on the ground of the disqualification incurred.

(3.) THE petitioner submits that at the time of scrutiny of the nomination papers, an objection was raised by respondent No. 4, who was also contesting the said election, that Krushnadas Mathankar owned a house within the limits of another Gram Panchayat, namely, Khapri in respect of which house tax and electric tax had come to be accumulated for a period of six years. The petitioners also submitted that to this objection raised, she had submitted an explanation that the petitioner was not a voter from the village Khapri for which there was a separate Gram Panchayat; secondly that she was resident of village Chikni and that the taxes for the house at Chikni had been paid in full and further that even in respect of the house at village Khapri, no demand had ever been made upon her or any member of her family and no bill has been served upon her and, therefore, there was no question of failure to pay the arrears of any taxes. The order of disqualification and consequently rejection of the nomination papers was, therefore, liable to be quashed.