JANGIR KAUR Vs. EXECUTIVE MAGISTRATE IST CLASS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed praying that the order of the Prescribed Authority under the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), by the which the election petition was dismissed, be quashed and election of Panchayat Bihla be set aside.

(2.) Briefly the case of the petitioner is that election to village Panchayat, Bihla, District Sangrur, took place on June 22, 1972. The petitioner and several other candidates filed nomination papers before the Returning Officer for the office of Panch. The nomination papers of the petitioner were rejected on the ground that she had been proposed by a person who himself was a candidate for the election, of Sarpanch of the said Panchayat. In the election, respondents 2 to 7 were elected as Panches. The petitioner filed an election petition before the Prescribed Authority on the above mentioned ground and also other grounds, which was dismissed by him on September 23, 1975. The petitioner has filed this petition for quashing the said order and setting aside the election. The writ petition has been contested by respondents 2 to 7.

(3.) The only contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that the petitioner was proposed by a person who himself was a candidate for the office of Sarpanch. He says that there is no bar in the Act or the Gram Panchayat Election Rules, 1960 (hereafter referred to as the Rules), for a person, who himself is a candidate either for the office of Sarpanch or a Panch, to propose or second the name of another candidate for the aforesaid office.