UCHIT BHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed for a direction to set aside the order dated 13.3,2006 passed by respondent No. 2, the Returning Officer (Panchayat) -cum-Circle Officer, Jamalpur, Munger, by which the nomination paper of the petitioner for election to the post of Mukhiya 2006 has been rejected/cancelled in the scrutiny on the ground that in the nomination form in column Nirbachan Chetra Sankhaya the petitioner has wrongly written the word 3 (three) instead of the word, 8 (eight) and further to restore the. petitioner's nomination.

(2.) A supplementary affidavit has been filed by the petitioner bringing on record the impugned order dated 13,3.2006 which could not be filed by him earlier since it was not available when the writ petition was filed. From perusal of the said order it appears that the ground for rejection was that the voter serial number of both the candidate and the proposer were wrong.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the petitioner has argued that the serial number of both the petitioner as well as of the proposer was correctly mentioned as can be found from 3 perusal of Annexure-3 to the writ petition which is the voters list of territorial constituency No. 8 of Indukh (West) Gram Panchayat, but due to over-sight in the nomination paper territorial constituency number was wrongly mentioned as 03 (three) instead of 08 (eight). From a perusal of the said voters list of territorial constituency of Gram Panchayat Indukh (West) the petitioner's name is to be found at Sl. No. 495 and that of his proposer is to be found at Serial No. 204. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has argued that the said error would come within the protection granted by Rule 41(3) of the Bihar Panchayat Election Rules 2006, which provides that no nomination paper can be rejected on account of any clerical or typographical error or any error which is not material and accordingly he contends that the mentioning of the wrong serial number of the territorial constituency is not a material error and hence, he ought to have been permitted to make the correction and his nomination paper should not have been rejected.