CHIRALA GOVERDHANAREDDY Vs. ELECTION TRIBUNAL BAPATLA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A common question that arises in both these writ petitions is whether the Election Tribunal, constituted under the Andhra pradesh Gram panchayat Act, can enquire into the age of a candidate in order to find out whether he was qualified to stand as a candidate on the date of his nomination. A Division Bench consisting of our learned brothers, Basi Reddy and Gopal rao Ekbote JJ, referred the two writ petitions to a Full Bench as they raised the question which is of great importance and is frequently raised and in view of the conflict between two Division Bench decisions of this Court (viz. In Ramachandram v. Seshayya, (1961) 2 Andh WR 23.

(2.) The material facts which are necessary for the determination of this question may be stated briefly.

(3.) In Writ Petition No. 1522 of 1964 the petitioner was declared to have been elected as a member of the Gram Panchayat of Nallamothuvaripalem Panchayat in the Guntur District from Constituency No. 3 with a majority of seven votes, in an election held on 2-6-1964, under the Andhra Pradesh Gram Panchayats Act (2 of 1964) which will hereinafter be referred to as the Act). The respondent filed an election petition in O. P. No. 24 of 1964 before the Election Tribunal, at Bapatal, under Rule 49 (1) of the Rules framed under the Act, for conduct of election of members to Gram Panchayats, for setting aside the election of the petitioner on two grounds. The first was that the petitioner had not the requisite age of 21 years when he was enrolled as a voter in the voters list and also when he filed the nomination and that, therefore, he was not entitled to be included in the voters list and to contest in the election held on 2-6-1964. The second ground was that the petitioner committed or abetted the commission of various election offences. However, when the matter came up for trial the second ground was given up. It was contended for the petitioner before the Election Tribunal that his name was found on the electoral rolls of the Panchayat and, therefore, he had every right to be nominated as a candidate and to contest the election and that the Election Tribunal cannot go behind the electoral roll and investigate into the question of age of a candidate. The Election Tribunal found on the basis of a birth extract filed before it that the petitioner was only 19 years of age and that he being below the requisite age of 21 years, which gives him the qualification to be enrolled as a voter, could not contest for the election. Holding that it had the jurisdiction to go into the question of the age of the candidate it set aside the election f the petitioner and directed a fresh election to be held. The petitioner, therefore, filed the present writ petition for quashing the said order of the Election Tribunal.