BANAJOSNA BARIK Vs. PRAFULLA BISWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner and the opp. party no. 1 filed their nominations to contest the election to the office of Sarpanch of Chahapara Grama Panchayat. THE nomination papers were scrutinized on 16.1.2007. At the time of scrutiny, the opp. party no. 1 challenged the validity of the nomination of the petitioner on the ground that she had more than two children and her two of her children were born after the cut-ff date and, therefore, she was disqualified under section 25 (1) (v) of the Orissa Grama Panchayat Act, 1964 (for short, 'the Act') to contest the election to the office of Sarpanch. THE petitioner resisted thesaid objection on the ground that she had no third child andthat the alleged third child Priyanka Priyadarshini was thedaughter of Saroj and Tilottama, Saroj being the elder brotherof the husband of the petitioner. THE nomination paper of thepetitioner was accepted and in the election held on 17.2.2007,the petitioner was declared elected having polled the highestnumber of votes. THE opp. party no. 1, thereafter, filed anelection dispute, being Election Case No. 2 of 2007, to declarethe election of the petitioner void and further to declare her tobe the elected Sarpanch. THE opp. party no. 1 also filed a Civil Suit seekinga relief of declaration that the order dated 8.5.2006 passed inMisc. Case No. 29 of 2006 under section 13 (3) of Births andDeaths Registration Act by the court of the ExecutiveMagistrate, Mahanga as well as the entry at serial no. 573 dated9.5.2006 of the Register of Birth and Death maintained at U.G.,C.H.C. Mahanga based upon the said order as illegal and todeclare that Priyanka Priyadarshini is the natural borndaughter of the petitioner and her husband Manoj @ AnojKumar Barik. THE said Civil Suit was numbered as C.S. No. 33of 2007.

(2.) BOTH the aforesaid proceedings were filed before thelearned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Salepur, Cuttack. Thepetitioner appeared in both the said cases and filed her writtenstatements denying the allegations made in the election petitionas well as in the plaint. The petitioner's case before the courtsbelow was that she has got only one daughter, namely, PragyanPridarshini and one son, namely, Dibyaranjan Barik. PriyankaPriyadarshini is the natural daughter of one Saroj Kumar Barikand his wife Tilottama Barik. Hence, there was no reason toreject the nomination paper of the petitioner. Her nominationpaper being valid and she having polled highest number of validvotes, was rightly declared elected as the Sarpanch. The learnedCivil Judge (Jr. Division), Salepur-cum-Election Tribunalclubbed the Election Case N. 2 of 2007 and the Civil Suittogether recording one set of evidence and disposed of both thesaid proceedings by a common judgment dated 12.9.2008.Common issues were framed in both the proceedings. Thelearned Civil Judge came to a finding of fact that PriyankaPriyadarshini is not the daughter of Sarojbandhu andTillottama and, on the contrary, she is the daughter of thepetitioner and her husband Anoja @ Manoj Kumar Barik. Healso came to a finding of fact that the petitioner's second andthird child were born after the cut-off date and, hence, the petitioner was disqualified from being elected as Sarpanch asper section 25 (1) (v) of the Act. Accordingly, the learned trialcourt decreed the Civil Suit declaring that the said daughterPriyanka Priyadarshini, who was the defendant no.5 in the suitto be the natural born daughter of the defendant no.3(petitioner) and her husband - defendant no. 4 and furtherdeclared that the order dated 8.5.2006 passed in Misc. CaseNo. 29 of 2006 by the Executive Magistrate, Mahanga is voidand illegal having no legal sanctity and so also serial no. 573dated 9.5.2006 in the register maintained at U.G. C.H.C.Mahanga.