BHASKAR SINGH RAGHUVANSHI Vs. HARVEERSINGH RAGHUVANSHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Additional Collector, Guna, as Election Tribunal under the M. P. Krishi Upaj Mandi Adhiniyam, 1973 has passed the impugned order, Annexure P-1. By that order, he has dismissed the Election Petition, holding that respondent No. 1 Harveersingh Raghuvanshi was an "agriculturist" within the meaning of the term defined in Section 2 (1 ) (b) of the M. P. Krishi Upaj Mandi Adhiniyam, 1973 (for short "the Adhiniyam" ).

(2.) SHRI Jain, who appears for the petitioner, has challenged the finding of the Tribunal, submitting that the finding is perverse and is contrary to the amended definition of the term, which came on the statute book in the year 1985, from 25-7-1985. The Election in the instant case was held in October, 1985. There is definitely substantial force in the contention pressed by Shri Jain as support for that to be read in a D. B. Decision of this, Court in Maheshkumar v. Addl. Collector, 1988 MPIJ 6. Counsel's reliance on two decisions of the Apex Court in the case of Abdul Rahiman, AIR 1969 SC 302 and Konappa Rudrappa, AIR 1969 SC 447, is well conceived and relevant.

(3.) WE are in complete agreement with the view expressed in Maheshkumar (supra) that the amended definition has a definite purpose. The legislature has made a deliberate attempt to ensure that persons who are completely dependent for livelihood on agriculture should come in the Mandi Samiti and should be eligible to contest election to the Mandi Samiti. Indeed, traders and agriculturists are two components of the Mandi Samiti and if under the garb of agriculturist, other persons following other avocations are included into Mandi Samiti, the whole purpose of the enactment would be frustrated. It is necessary, therefore, for a person staking his claim to contest election to a Mandi Samiti to establish that his livelihood was dependent only on agricultural produce and he did not depend on some other profession or business, as held in Maheshkumar (supra ). It is the complete involvement of the person in the pursuit of agriculture, that is contemplated under the new definition and that is done to subserve the purpose of the enactment.