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 Lal 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 authorised 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 6.8.208 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.) IN support of his contention, learned counsel for the petitioners referred to sub-section (5) of Section 10 of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), which provides that the offices of Presidents in the municipalities shall be filled up from amongst the members belonging to the General category, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Women by rotation and by lots in the manner prescribed. He further submits that the General, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes and Women are the separate categories, therefore, a Councilor elected in a category can be elected as the President of the Municipal Committee/Council, reserved for that category. Learned counsel further referred to second proviso to Section 18 of the Act, which provides that if the office of President is vacated during his tenure on account of his death, resignation or no confidence motion, a fresh election for the remainder of the period shall be held from the same category. Learned counsel also referred to Rule 70(4) of the Election Rules and submitted that if a Municipal Councilor elected from the seat reserved for 'women' category, is permitted to contest the election of the President reserved for 'General' category, then it will disturb the percentage of the office of President fixed under sub-rule (4) for different categories.