KRISHNA KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned counsel for the Respondents.

(2.) Petitioners' counsel has questioned the validity of the election of Municipal Commissioners of Hajipur Municipality. He has moved this Court on the ground, inter alia, that the election was conducted by the Returning Officer, namely, Respondents 3 and 4, who were appointed for the said purpose by a notification under the orders of the District Magistrate, Vaishali on 29-6-1988. Constituents, however, were called to elect their representatives by a notification published for the said purpose by the District Magistrate on 16-7-1988. This, according to learned counsel, violates R.8 of the Bihar Municipal Elections and Election Petitions Rules, which states that immediately after the issue of a notification under sub-rule (1) of R.7, the District Magistrate shall appoint a Magistrate of the first class to be the Returning Officer for the Municipality.

(3.) Violation of the said Rule, according to learned counsel, is not only in notifying Respondents 3 and 4 as the Returning Officer on 29-6-1988 that is to say before the issue of the notification under sub-rule (1) of R.7 which lays down that for the purpose of constituting the municipality or re-constituting it on the expiration of the term of office of the Commissioners or under S.386, the District Magistrate shall, by a notification published in the Official Gazette and in the manner laid down in S.356, call upon all the wards of the municipality, to elect Commissioners but in ignoring the mandate that such Returning Officer shall be a Magistrate of first class and none-else.