MANOJ Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, who are 2 Municipal Councilors of Municipal Council, Bhiwani, have filed this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the election of Smt. Sewa Devi-(respondent No. 3 herein) as President of the Municipal Council, Bhiwani.

(2.) In the present case, the office of the President of the Municipal Council, Bhiwani was reserved for General category. Earlier one Sh. Nand Lai Chawla was elected as President of the Municipal Council, Bhiwani. Unfortunately, he was murdered. Therefore, fresh election to the office of President of the Municipal Council was called for. Additional Deputy Commissioner, Bhiwani was authorized by the Deputy Commissioner, Bhiwani to convene and conduct meeting of the members of the Municipal Council, Bhiwani under Rule 70(1)(b) of the Haryana Municipal Election Rules, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as the Election Rules ), for the purpose of election of the office of President of the Municipal Council. The Additional Deputy Commissioner fixed 6.8.2008 as the date of the said meeting for election of the office of President. In the said meeting, which was attended by 30 elected Municipal Councilors and 1 nominated Councilor, Smt. Sewa Devi (respondent No. 3) was elected as President of the Municipal Council, as out of 30 elected Councilors, 7 Councilors, including the petitioners, walked out from the said meeting and the remaining 23 elected Councilors participated, out of whom 22 had cast their votes in favour of, respondent No. 3.

(3.) Now, the petitioners have filed this petition for setting aside the election of respondent No. 3 as President of the Municipal Council, Bhiwani, on the ground that she was elected as a Municipal Councilor from the seat reserved for the category of women , therefore, she was not eligible to contest the election of the office of President of the Municipal Council, which has been reserved for General category.