KANHAIYA LAL Vs. DISTRICT JUDGE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Through this writ petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner Kanhaiya Lal being the returned Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Chhacharlayit Kalan, Panchayat Samiti Kalyanpur, Tehsil Pachpadra, District Barmer, has approached this Court for assailing the order dtd. 24/4/2015 passed by the learned District Judge, Balotra in Election Petition No.63/2015 whereby, the matter was transferred to the court of ACJM, Balotra for trial.

(2.) Shri Dhera learned counsel representing the petitioner vehemently urged that the ACJM has no jurisdiction to try the case and only a Civil Judge or Additional Civil Judge can try the election petition as per Sec. 43 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 and Rule 89 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Election Rules, 1994. He urged that an ACJM being a criminal court has no jurisdiction to act as an Election Tribunal. He further urged that the proceedings conducted thus far by the ACJM cannot be saved for the simple reason that as the same were conducted by a court without jurisdiction and thus, all proceedings are null and void. On these grounds, he implored the Court to exercise its supervisory writ jurisdiction and quash the proceedings as being grossly illegal and without jurisdiction.

(3.) Per contra, Shri Manoj Bohra Advocate representing the respondents has vehemently opposed the submissions advanced by Shri Dhera. He urged that the petitioner voluntarily participated in the proceedings for a period of almost three years and has raised this objection regarding jurisdiction of Court after a significant delay and thus, no interference is warranted in the exercise of the supervisory writ jurisdiction looking to the petitioner's conduct.