BHARPAI Vs. MANBHARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Six Panches were elected to the Gram Panchayat Kitlana and a meeting of the Gram Panchayat was convened on December 11, 1971, for co-option of one lady member of the Gram Panchayat. Necessary notices were duly issued to all the elected Panches and all the six Panches presented themselves in the meeting for the purpose of co-opting the lady member. Two candidates, duly proposed and seconded, were put forth for the election. One was the petitioner and the other was respondent No. 1. When the matter came to voting, the Panches were found to be equally divided. At that stage, all of them jointly requested the convener of the meeting to spin a Coin for deciding the result of the election of a particular candidate. It so happened that the spin of the coin favoured the petitioner and she was declared to have been co-opted as a lady Panch. Respondent No. 1 filed an election petition before the Prescribed Authority, who, by order dated March 19, 1974, set aside the election of the petitioner. It is this decision of the Prescribed Authority which is attacked in this petition.

(2.) The Prescribed Authority framed the following issues :

(3.) In my considered opinion, the decision given by the Prescribed Authority cannot be allowed to stand. It is often said that an election is a time-consuming process and it should not be set aside on light grounds. This principle has received statutory recognition in the form of Section 13-O of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The relevant part of this section reads as under :