PARMATMA RAM Vs. SIRI CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India. The learned counsel for the petitioners has conceded that Article 227 of the Constitution is not applicable and that it is only under Article 226 that the petition can lie.

(2.) The municipality of Solan was divided into five wards for the purposes of election to the Municipal Committee, Each one of the petitioners is a voter registered in the electoral rolls of one of those Wards. At the elections held in 1958 respondents 1 to 5 were elected to the Municipal Committee from four of the wards, namely 2 to 5. This was so as one of those constituencies was a double member one. So far as ward No. 1 was concerned, elections were held but the result of the election was not announced in obedience to a writ of mandamus issued by this Court in pursuance of the writ petition No. 57 of 1958 filed by one Shri K.G. Khanna, hereinafter to be referred as 'Khanna's petition'. The direction of this Court was that a fresh electoral roll be prepared for ward No. 1 after giving an opportunity to those concerned to prefer claims and objections and after providing for the disposal of the objections etc. that may be preferred and thereafter a fresh election to that ward be held. The authorities framed a programme for the bye- election to ward No. 1 and the petitioners filed the petition under consideration for the issue of a writ in the nature of mandamus or quo warranto or any other suitable writ to hold fresh elections to all the wards of the Solan Municipal Committee according to law after due formulation of the rules and preparation of electoral rolls after giving an opportunity to the petitioners and others concerned to prefer claims and objections and providing for their adjudication.

(3.) The grounds on which the aforesaid prayers are based are (a) that in the rules framed by the Lieutenant-Governor in exercise of his powers under Sections 240 and 258, Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, as applied to Himachal Pradesh, there is no provision for the preferment of objections to the electoral rolls or for their disposal; (b) that the electoral rolls on the basis of which elections were held in the year 1958 were hopelessly defective inasmuch as many of the persons who had left Solan about two years back due to the shifting of the University to Chandigarh were entered in the electoral rolls as voters, that the name of one single voter found place in the electoral rolls for more wards than one, that the name of Shri Itwari Lal, respondent No. 3, was shown in the electoral roll at Otari and that the names of voters were added in the electoral rolls after 9-5-19,58, the date on which they had become final; (c) that even after the issue of writ in Khanna's petition no rule was framed by the Administration providing for the filing of and disposal of objections against the inclusion or exclusion of names in the electoral rolls; and (d) that it would be incongruous if the election of the other members is allowed to stand when the election of one member has been declared to be null and void on the ground of the electoral rolls being defective;