RAM KUMAR SHARMA Vs. PUNJAB STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are two writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution regarding municipal elections. The main basis of both the petitions is the contention that the provisions of Section 240 (b) and (c) of the Punjab Municipal Act of 1911 are invalid on the ground of excessive delegation of authority.

(2.) THE first petition in point of time, C. W. No. 1094 of 1965, was filed by a single petitioner, Ram Kumar Sharma, on the 8th of April, 1965 and it was admitted on the 26th of April, 1965 by my learned brother Harbans Singh, J. and myself in ignorance of the fact that writ petitions based on similar grounds had been dismissed by Jindra Lal, J. on the 18th of May, 1964, (C. W. No. 628 of 1964), and by a Division Bench of Dulat and Grover, JJ. on the 14th of January, 1965, (C. W. No. 1257 of 1964 ). The other petition, C. W. No. 1225 of 1965, was filed by 49 petitioners and when admitted by the same Bench on the 26th of May, 1965 it was ordered to be heard along with Ram Kumar Sharma's petition. When both the petitions came before Narula, J. on the 12th of August 1965 he thought it necessary that they should be laid before a Full Bench in view of the fact that both of them had been admitted after a similar petition had been dismissed by a division Benc

(3.) IN Ram Kumar Sharma's case the facts are that in connection with the general election of the members of the Municipal Committee of Hissar a notification, dated the 6th of December 1963 was published in the Gazette (Extraordinary on the 7th of December 1963 delimiting the wards and dividing the municipal area of Hissar into 21 constituencies of which two were double-member constituencies and 19 single-member constituencies. This was apparently only a tentative notification and after objections had been received a final notification was issued in a Gazette (Extraordinary) of the 12th of February 1964 after which the electoral rolls were prepared the result of which is shown in the following table:-Wardthereafter the Deputy Commissioner issued an election programme in accordance with the provisions of the Election Rules of 1952 on the 1st of May 1964, the election proceedings being due to begin with the filing of nomination papers on the 12th of May and culminating in the poll on the 21st of June 1964.