RAM NANDAN SINGH Vs. RAMADHAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India. The petitioner and opposite parties 1 and 2 were candidates for the office of Mukhiya of Marha Mankarwa Gram Panchayat during the last election and they had submitted their nomination papers for the same on 18-6-1962. All the three nomination papers were accepted as valid Opposite Party No. 2, however, withdrew his candidature on 21-6-1962, and only two candidates namely, the petitioner and the opposite party No. 1 remained in the field. Ultimately, the poll was completed on the 10th of August, and opposite party No. 1 was declared elected. On 10-9-1962 the petitioner filed an election petition before the Election Tribunal, Motihari, for setting aside the election of opposite party No. 1, on the ground that the election was conducted in contravention of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act and the Bihar Panchayat Elections Rules. It was also alleged that the ballot papers and the ballot boxes were tampered with and the poll was illegally held on an adjourned date. The Election Tribunal, however, without deciding the election petition on merits, dismissed the same on the preliminary ground that the election petition was filed out of time. The petitioner, therefore, presented this application in this Court for the relief stated above.

(2.) The Election Tribunal, in dismissing the election petition, relied on a Bench decision of this Court, in Chandra Shekhar Prasad Singh v. Jai Prakash Singh, AIR 1959 Pat 450, for holding the election petition to be barred by time. When this case came up for final hearing before me, sitting singly, I felt that the ratio of the above Bench decision required re-consideration, and, therefore, referred the case to be placed before a Division Bench. The case, thereupon came up before a Division Bench, but that Bench also took the view that the correctness of the above Division Bench decision has to be examined, and referred this case to a Full Bench. This Bench has, therefore, been constituted to hear and dispose of the case.

(3.) Section 80 of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 empowers the State Government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of that Act; and, in exercise of that power in supersession of all previous rules on the subject, the Governor of Bihar was pleased to make rules called the Bihar Panchayat Elections Rules, 1959 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Rules"). Rule 72 (2) states that an election petition against a returned candidate shall be presented to the Election Tribunal within thirty days from the date of the declaration of the result of the election. The question that arises for consideration in the present case is as to the method of computation of thirty days for filing the election petition. On behalf of the petitioner, it is contended that, in computing the above period of thirty day the date on which the result of the election was declared, namely, 10-8-1962, should be excluded. The contention is that, if 10-8-1962 is excluded in computing the period of limitation, the last date for filing the election petition would be 9-9-1962, which was a Sunday, and, therefore the election petition filed on the next day, that is, on 10-9-1962, was, well within time. The contention of the opposite party is that the period of thirty days provided under Rule 72(2) of the Rules is inclusive of the date on which the result of the election was declared, and, as such, 10-8-1962, should be counted in computing the period of limitation. According to that submission, the last date for filing the election petition would be 8-9-1962, and, the application not having been filed on that date, it was barred by limitation. This submission found favour with the Election Tribunal and, as already stated, the election Tribunal based its decision on a Bench decision of this Court referred to above.