CHELIKANI NAGESWARA RAO Vs. CHELIKANI RAJA MOHAN RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question in this appeal relates to the jurisdiction of the District Munsif in an election petition under Section 61(3)(b) of the A.P. Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 for grant of a temporary injunction under Sec. 62 (4) of the Acts and Order 39, Rule 1 read with Section 151, CPC.

(2.) This writ appeal is preferred by the 1st respondent in the writ petition inasmuch as the learned single Judge had allowed the writ petition No. 8108/88 filed by the 1st respondent in this appeal. For the purpose of convenience we shall adopt the array of parties as in the writ petition, in which the appellant before us was the 1st respondent.

(3.) Pursuant to an election notification the election of the office of President of the Society was held on 28-6-1987. It appears that on 28-6-87, the. date of election, the election officer adjourned the election at 3-15 p.m. and addressed a letter to the Collector explaining the circumstances of adjournment of election and thereupon the Collector issued proceedings on 30-6-1987 directing that the counting shall not take place on 1-7-1987 as scheduled. On the same day the Collector issued another order ordering fresh elections to take place on 11-7-1987. The second election notification was then issued on 3-7-1987 by the election officer intimating that fresh election will be conducted on 11-7-1987. At that stage the appellant herein filed W.P. No. 8991/1987 for issuing a writ of mandamus declaring the orders of the returning officer dated 3-7-1987 for conducting elections on 11-7-1987 as being illegal and void and for directing the election officer to count the votes polled on 28-6-87 and to declare the result of the election which took place on 28-6-87. Pending that writ petition the appellant herein filed W.P. M.P. Nos. 11905 and 11906 of 1987 in which a Division Bench ordered on 8-7-1987 that the election scheduled to take place on 11-7-1987 will go on as per the election programme but the result will not be announced till further orders and that the ballot boxes already used shall be kept intact. A further order was passed in the main writ petition No. 8991/1987 on 23-7-1987 directing the election officer to count the votes polled on 28-6-1987 separately and also to count the votes polled on 11-7-87 separately. It is further directed that the result of the election will not be declared. Ultimately the writ petition was disposed of by a Division Bench of this Court on 2-3-1988 wherein the writ petition was dismissed stating that there is no reason for stopping declaration of the result of election. The remedy of the writ petitioner (appellant before us) was to take recourse to the provisions of Section 61(3) (b) of A.P. Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 (hereinafter called the Act) by way of an election petition. In the said writ petition this Court observed that the issues raised in the writ petition were : whether or not there was justification for stopping the election at 3-15 p.m. on 28-6-87, whether invocation of powers of the returning officer under Rule 22(7) (n) was justified and whether the parties should be directed to go before the election tribunal. After posing the above said questions, the Division Bench observed that it was not possible for the High Court to adjudicate disputed questions of fact and that therefore the writ petitioner should file an election petition. The election officer was directed 'to declare the result of the election'.