NIRMALA DEVI Vs. STATE OF HP AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN the present writ petition, preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, Petitioner has prayed for giving direction to the Respondents to reject the order of Returning Officer, canceling the nomination of the Petitioner to the post of Member Panchayat Samiti, Sadar Road Jaman No. 35 ( Majari, Dabat and Road Jaman) District Bilaspur, HP.

(2.) ACCORDING to the Petitioner, she belongs to OBC category and the place where she had filled up the nomination paper, was reserved for OBC candidate, but ignoring her certificate of OBC, Returning Officer has cancelled her nomination paper.

(3.) SR . R.K. Sharma, learned Senior Additional Advocate General placed reliance on the following cases and has stated that in view of the decision of Supreme Court in N.P. Ponnuswami v. The Returning Officer Namakkal Constituency Namakkal, Salem Dist. and Ors : AIR 1952 SC 64, rejection or acceptance of a nomination paper is included in the term 'election'. In view of decision of Supreme Court in Hari Vishnu Kamath v. Ahmad Ishaque and ors, : AIR 1955 SC 233, it has been held that in respect of any dispute regarding election as provided under Article 329(b) of the Constitution, the writ petition is barred and for this purpose relevant paragraph -6 as referred by Sh.R.K. Sharma, is extracted as below: