DEV MITTAR AHUJA Vs. SOHAN LAL AHUJA ETC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under clause 10 of the Letters Patent and is directed against the decision of a learned Single Judge of this Court whereby the learned Judge quashed the election of three Municipal Commissioners as trustees to the Improvement Trust, Abohar.

(2.) Under Section 4 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922 (Act No. 4 of 1922), which is in the following terms three members of the Municipal Committee have to be elected as trustees to the Improvement Trust by the Municipal Committee :

(3.) Turning to the phraseology of Section 4, it is clear that the right is given to the Municipal Committee to elect three members as trustees. Just as the majority group in a municipal committee does the day to day administration of the committee does the day to day administration of the committee and any matter which requires voting is carried by the majority vote, and that is what was actually done, and we see nothing wrong in this. However, on general principles also we are of the view that the normal rule is that if there are a number of persons to be elected, the members of the electoral college will have one vote each to elect each of them, unless the Legislature provides to the contrary. Such provision will be fund in the Representation of the People Act in the matter of proportional representation under Articles 55 and 66 of the Constitution of India. This is also apparent from the Election Rules of the Punjab Samitis and Zila Parishads as well as of the Punjab Gram Panchayats, where to elect a number of persons the members of the electoral college are only given one vote and not votes commensurate with the number of persons to be elected. In the Companies Act a provision is made in the matter of election of directors and it is clearly provided that if five directors are to be elected, each shareholder will have five votes, i.e. one vote for each director. Similarly in double-member constituencies when existing under the Representation of the People Act, if two candidates had to be elected I am elector had two votes, one for each candidate. Same was the case in the Municipal act where from a single ward two members had to be elected. Therefore, on principle we agree with Mr. Kaushal that the general rule is that the number of seats to be filled will determine as to how many votes each of the electors will have. For examples, if from one constituency five persons have to be elected, the members of that constituency will have five votes each.