UMAKANT SINGH Vs. BINDA CHOUDHARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In all these live cases the election under Clause (iii) of Section 5 of the Bihar Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads Act, 1961 (Bihar Act VI of 1962), hereinafter called the Act, of the representatives of the different Co-operative Societies in the different Blocks by the Secretaries thereof from amongst themselves to the various Panchayat Samitis. has been challenged on two grounds: (i) that Rule 3 of the Bihar Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads (Elections, Co-options and Election Petitions) Rules, 1963, hereinafter called the Rules, prescribing the manner of the election under the said provision of the Act, as it stood at the relevant time, was constitutionally invalid; and (ii) that the Returning Officer did not obtain a list of Secretaries from the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies as required by the said rule for the purpose of convening a meeting for election of the representatives specified in Clause (iii) of Section 5 of the Act.

(2.) There have been many amendments in the Act and the Rules in the year 1964. But since we are concerned in all these five cases with the elections which were held in the year 1963, I shall refer to the relevant provisions of the Act and Rules as they stood prior to the amendments. Section 6 of the Act providing for composition of Panchayat Samitis in various blocks stated:

(3.) Learned Government Advocate apparting for respondents 6 to 8, the elected representatives, in M. J. C. 462 of 1964, submitted that, although there was no express provision made in the Rules for the filing and settlement of objections to the elector's list supplied by the Assistant Registrar of Co operative Societies, the Returning Officer, at the time of the scrutiny of the nomination papers or the taking of the poll, could entertain and decide the objections, if any, in regard to the list of secretaries obtained from the Assistant Registrar. In my opinion, the argument is wrong and cannot be accept ad. From the practical as well as from the legal point of view a procedure for the filing of the objections and their settlement in regard to the electors' list for any election has got to be prescribed before the electors are called upon to file the nomination papers and to cast their vote at the poll, if necessary. In all kinds of elections parliamentary, municipal or of gram panchayats such procedures were prescribed and to obviate unnecessary expenses and time in preparing duplicate electoral rolls for gram panchayat and municipal elections in Bihar relevant portions of the electoral rolls of the parliamentary constituencies, which are prepared in accordance with the elaborate procedure provided and prescribed in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Rules framed thereunder, have been adopted for the purposes of those elections. It is difficult to imagine of a valid election without prescribing the procedure and the forum for the filing and settlement of objections to the electors' list. To say that such steps could be reasonably and valiclly taken at the time of the filing of the nomination papers or the poll is not correct. I may add that learned Additional Standing Counsel appearing for the State did not advance any such argument to support the validity of Rule 3 of the Rules.