SURINDER SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners are seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus directing respondent No.2 to declare the result as per the actual counting and as per Form-35 (Annexures P-6 and P-7) already prepared for Ward Nos.8 and 2, Lehra Gaga, wherein petitioner Nos. 1 and 2 were elected as the winning candidates of the respective wards and ignore the forged and fabricated Form-35, prepared by respondent No.4-Sub Diviaional Magistrate-cum-Returning Officer, Lehra Gaga, to declare respondent Nos. 7 and 8 elected from Ward Nos. 8 and 2 respectively.

(2.) Present petition has been filed by two candidates namely, Surinder Singh from Ward No.8 and Surinder Kaur from Ward No.2, independent candidates. Their case is that they had defeated the rival Congress candidates i.e. respondent Nos.7 and 8 from the respective wards. After declaration of the result, only certificates were to be handed over by respondent No.4, who was the then Ex. Officio Returning Officer for the elections of Municipal Council, Lehra Gaga. As per petitioners, after declaring them (petitioners) as winners, as independent candidates, respondent Nos.4 and 5 forged Form-35. Petitioners have placed on record videography of their celebrations (uploaded in a CD) as Annexure P-1. Stills of the aforesaid videos showing celebrations of winning of petitioners are annexed as Annexure P-2. They have also placed on record CD (Annexure P-3) showing that the news channels also videographed their victory. Counting was done at Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lehra Gaga. There were total 15 Wards in the Municipal Council, Lehra Gaga-respondent No.3. In the first round, out of 8 seats, 5 were declared elected from the independent candidates, including the petitioners. In the second round, out of 7 seats, 3 were declared elected from the independent candidates. The independent candidates, who were declared winners i.e. respondent Nos.7 and 8 were from the Congress party. The petitioners were allotted the symbol of 'Gas Cylinder' and 'Truck' and both the wards i.e. Ward Nos.8 and 2 were reserved for the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste category. The votes were polled on 14/2/2021. The counting started at 9.00 A.M. on 17/2/2021 at Baba Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lehra Gaga. Result of Ward Nos. 1 to 8 was declared at about 10.00 A.M., whereby petitioners were declared elected from Ward Nos.8 and 2 respectively. Petitioner No.1 had obtained 264 votes and was declared elected by a margin of 50 votes against respondent No.7. Petitioner No.2 had obtained 373 votes and was declared elected by a margin of 69 votes as opposed to respondent No.8. Even some of the newspapers had reported that the petitioners were declared as winners from Ward Nos. 8 and 2. One such news cutting is attached as Annexure P-4. When petitioners went to get their winning certificates from respondent No.4, they were shocked to know that they had lost the election and respondent Nos. 7 and 8 had won. Due to the protest on the site, the General Election Observer for the Constituencies of Malerkotla, Amargarh, Dhuri, Bhawanigarh, Sunam, Longowal and Lehra Gaga namely Sh. Sanjay Popli, IAS, arrived and gave a detailed inquiry report (Annexure P-5) to the State Election Commissioner-respondent No.2. As per this report, respondent Nos. 4 to 6 had botched up and rigged the entire counting process. Form-35 pertaining to Ward Nos.8 and 2 have been attached as Annexures P-6 and P-7. A perusal of Form-35 (Annexure P-6) shows that Sehaj Pal Kaur-respondent No.7 got 112 votes. Numeric '1' was made as '6', therefore, the result showed 162 votes. It further shows that petitioner No.1-Surinder Singh got 161 votes and the numeric '6' was changed into '0' and the result showed 101 votes. Chotta Singh, who got 100 votes, was turned to 110 votes, only to maintain the figure of 841 votes polled. Similarly, as per Form-35 (Annexure P-7) regarding Ward No.2, petitioner No.2 got 373 votes, which was changed to 313 as '7' was tampered to make it look like '1'. Respondent No.8-Pooja Rani got 304 votes in her favour. But, the figure was changed to 364 as '0' was changed into '6'. Statements of losing candidates recorded by the General Election Observer have been placed on record as Annexure P-8. After receiving the report (Annexure P-5), respondent No.2-State Election Commission wrote a letter dtd. 19/2/2021 (Annexure P-9) to respondent No.1 to immediately suspend respondent No.4, as she had been found guilty.

(3.) On 12/3/2021, when notice of motion was issued in this case, convening of the meeting for election to the office of President, Municipal Council, Lehra Gaga, District Sangrur, was kept in abeyance. Upon notice of this petition, respondents have filed their separate written statements. Thereafter, petitioners filed their rejoinders.