MANOHAR PAL SHARMA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a registered practitioner of Indian System of Medicine in Himachal Pradesh under the H. P. Board of Ayurveda and Unani Systems of Medicine, Shimla. He has filed the present writ petition to seek the following reliefs :

(2.) The case of the petitioner is that for holding elections in the State of Himachal Pradesh for electing one member for Ayurveda and one member for Unai System of Medicine in the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), New Delhi under Section 3 of the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 (hereinafter called 'the Act'), notification dated 6-2-2002 (Annexure-P-1) was issued by respondent No. 3 as per Rule 7 of the Indian Medicine Central Council (Election) Rules, 1975 (hereinafter called 'the Rules'). As per this notification, the nomination papers were to reach the Returning Officer before 3 p.m. on 6-3-2002. The scrutiny of nomination papers was to be taken up at 5 p.m. on 7-3-2002 and thereafter within seven days the nomination papers could be withdrawn. The date for poll was fixed 16-5-2002 and scrutiny and counting of votes was to commence at 10.00 a.m. on 18-5-2002.

(3.) The petitioner filed this petition on 4-3-2002 and it was taken up on 14-3-2002 when Mr. Vinod Sharma, Addl. Central Govt. Standing Counsel accepted notice on behalf of respondents 1 and 2 and notices to other respondents were ordered to be issued. The writ petition was again taken up for admission on 6-5-2002 when the matter was considered and in the interim, it was ordered that counting and declaration of result will remain stayed.