SITA RAM Vs. SUB DIVISIONAL MAGISTRATE AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the election to the office of Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat, Malikpur, tehsil Sonepat, district Rohtak, held on December 27, 1963, out of the five contestants including the petitioner and respondent No. 2, the former was declared elected. At the instance of Nand Lal respondent No. 2 the election was set aside by the order of respondent No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the Election Tribunal), dated May 15, 1967 (Annexure 'A') as being void and fresh election was ordered. The solitary ground on which Nand Lal's election petition succeeded was that the petitioner had committed corrupt practice defined in section 13 -U(7) of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952, as amended by Act 26 of 1962 (hereinafter called the Act), inasmuch as the petitioner had obtained the assistance of Tara Chand a teacher in the Government Primary School, Bhigan and Om Parkash Tyagi, a Clerk in the Government's Cooperative Department, for the furtherance of the prospects of his election by appointing the aforesaid two persons as his polling agents, a capacity in which they had so acted. In the order of the Election Tribunal it was held that Tara Chand was a Government employee and he had acted as polling agent for the petitioner and that similarly there was sufficient evidence to show that Om Parkash Tyagi who had admitted himself to be a Government servant had also acted as polling agent of the petitioner. The order of the Election Tribunal is sought to be quashed in this case by a writ in the nature of certiorari on the ground that a candidate does not commit any corrupt practice by merely appointing a Government servant as his polling agent.

(2.) THE writ petition was filed on June 1, 1967, during the summer vacation. On june 2, 1967, Mahajan V.J., stayed the operation of the impugned order pending hearing of the writ petition by the Motion Bench. The stay order was continued in force by the Motion Bench consisting of Shamsher Bahadur and P.C. Pandit JJ. at the time of its admission on July 28, 1967.

(3.) CLAUSE (7) of section 13 -U of the Act reads as follows :