SAT PAL Vs. STATE OF PANJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Municipal Council, Ferozepur City comprises of 26 Municipal Councillors. 25 of the Municipal Councillors are elected members, whereas, remaining one member is the local MLA being an ex officio member of the Municipal Council. Elections to the Municipal Council were held in March 2003. Besides the post of the President, there are two offices of the Vice President in the Municipal Council. The tenure of the offices of the Vice President is one year from the date of election. The term of two earlier Vice Presidents elected on April 10, 2003 expired in April 2004. Accordingly, fresh elections were required to be held for the aforesaid two posts of Vice President.

(2.) The petitioners claim that they were trying and continuously approaching the Municipal Council, Ferozepur and the Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur for calling a meeting of the Municipal Council to elect the aforesaid two Vice Presidents. However, no meeting was held. In representation made by some members, a meeting of the Municipal Council was fixed for February 4, 2005. However, on directions issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur the meeting was adjourned to February 10, 2005. The petitioners claim that a meeting of the Municipal Councillors was held on February 10, 2005 for the purposes of election of the senior Vice President and a junior Vice President. However, they were prevented by Police force and some other unsocial elements from entering into the Town Hall, Ferozepur where the election was scheduled to be held. Accordingly, they held their own meeting. It is claimed by the petitioners that they were 16 Municipal Councillors including local MLA being the ex officio member. In the aforesaid meeting, they elected Shri Satpal as a Senior Vice President and Shri Davinder Bajaj as a Junior Vice President. However, a meeting was held in the Town Hall Ferozepur City as well. The petitioners claim that in the aforesaid meeting, there were only 10 members present. In the aforesaid meeting held in the presence of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ferozepur, Shri Gurdeep Singh Dhillon was elected as Senior Vice President and Shri Lavkesh Bhandari was elected as Junior Vice President. It has been claimed by the petitioners that the aforesaid meeting held in the Town Hall was in fact totally unauthorised, illegal and sham proceedings. Accordingly, the petitioners have approached this Court through the present petition claiming that the aforesaid Resolution electing Gurdeep Singh Dhillon and Lavkesh Bhandari as Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President, respectively, be set aside.

(3.) The petitioners have also levelled serious allegations of mala fide against the Sub Divisional Magistrate, respondent No. 4 and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab, respondent No. 5. It has been claimed that the aforesaid proceedings were held by the Sub Divisional Magistrate under the influence of respondent No. 5. It has further been claimed by the petitioners that in any case, the election of the Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President through the aforesaid Resolution Annexure P.4 was contrary to the law and, therefore, was liable to be set aside.