MAKSUNDAN RAM Vs. KAMLA PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has obtained a rule from this Court on his application filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India against the respondents to show cause why the orders dated 15-11-65 and 21-12-65 of the Election Tribunal ordering the recounting of the ballot papers in respect of the election of the Mukhiya of Jawanganj Gram Panchayat in the district of Gaya be not called up and quashed. Cause has been shown by Mr. Raghunath Jha on behalf of respondent No. 1--the petitioner who filed the election petition and at whose instance the impugned orders have been made--and by the teamed Additional Standing Counsel on behalf of the State of Bihar

(2.) The petitioner's case in short is that he was elected Mukhiya of the Gram Panchayat aforesaid in the election held on the 21st of May, 1965. The first respondent, by an application filed under the Bihar Panchayat Elections Rules, 1959. hereinafter called the Rules, challenged the election of the petitioner and claimed a further relief that It should be declared that the respondent No. 5 was the duly elected Mukhiya. In the election petition, a copy of which is annexure A to the writ application, amongst others, the grounds stated in the following paragraphs are these-

(3.) The petitioner's case is that when the counting was done by the Presiding Officer on the day when 'the election was held, polling agents of all the contesting candidates were present including the agent of respondent No 5, for whose benefit respondent No. 1 seems to have filed the application, and this would appear from the chart (annexure A to the writ application).