BHANWARBAI Vs. MADHYA PRADESH STATE ELECTION COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants have filed this writ appeal being aggrieved by the order dtd. 2/11/2022, whereby the Writ Court has dismissed the Writ Petition No.17927 of 2022 with a liberty to them to take recourse of appropriate remedy of election petition, if they are so advised, to ventilate their grievance.

(2.) The present appeal is filed solely on the ground that when the writ petition was filed, no alternate remedy was available to the writ petitioners as the election of President of Janpad Panchayat Ujjain was not notified. The election petition is liable to be filed only after notification of the election, therefore, the Writ Court ought to have decided the writ petition on the facts and circumstances prevailing at the time of filing of the writ petition. However, as a precautionary measure, the appellants have filed an election petition as the limitation to filing the election petition was going to expire. In support of his contention, learned counsel for the appellant has placed reliance on judgments passed by the Division Bench of this Court in the case of Chandra Bhan Singh V/s State of M.P. and others, 2001 (2) M.P.L.J. 419, Ghanshyam Tiwari and another V/s State of M.P. and others, ILR (2010) M.P. 1517 and Pradhuman Verma V/s State of M.P. and others, 2017 SCC OnLine MP 2305.

(3.) Appellants No.1 to 10 are the elected members of Janpad Panchayat Ujjain and appellants No.11 to 13 are the representatives of the three other members of the said Panchayat as at that time they were suffering from Covid-19 and were under quarantine. The election of Janpad Panchayat was held on 25/6/2022 and certificates to that effect were issued on 14/7/2022. After the aforesaid election of Janpad Panchayat, the Presiding Officer issued an election program for conducting an election to the post of President and Vice President on 27/7/2022 under the provisions of the M.P. Up-Sarpanch (President and Vice President) Nirvachan Niyam, 1995 (hereinafter referred as 'Rules, 1995'). According to appellants/writ petitioners, 3 elected members were suffering from Covid-19 disease and were unable to cast their votes, therefore, they authorized appellants No.11 to 13 to cast their votes. The applications to that effect were submitted before the Presiding Officer along with the Covid certificate. Similarly, 4 elected members i.e. appellants No.1 to 4 requested for the casting of votes through a companion being an illiterate. The Presiding Officer rejected all the applications that conducted the election and declared respondent No.5 as the elected candidate by securing 12 votes.