QURABALI Vs. GOVERNMENT OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a writ application by Quarabali, Bhinvraj and Nemichand under Article 226 of the Constitution by which it is prayed that respondents Nos. 4 to 19 who have been lately elected as members of the Pali Municipality and respondents Nos. 20 and 21 who have been nominated by the Government thereto be restrained from functioning as members of the said municipality and that fresh elections be ordered to be held in accordance with law.

(2.) The facts which have led to the present application may be shortly stated as follows : A general election was held for the Pali municipality on the 3rd and 4th April, 1949, Respondents Nos. 4 to 19 are the successful candidates thereat who have been declared to be members of the municipality, and their names have been notified in the State Gazette. Respondents Nos. 20 and 21 appear thereafter to have been nominated as members of the said municipality. Of the petitioners, the first two are the defeated candidates, Quarabali having, offered himself as a candidate for ward No. 5 and Bhinvraj for ward No. 15, and the third petitioner Nemichand is a resident of and a voter on the electoral rolls of this municipality. It is admitted between the parties that the boundaries of this municipality were revised by a notification of the Government dated 15-2-1953, under Section 5

(3.) From the array of facts set out above, two main points have been argued before us. The first is that the limits of the Pali Municipality as altered by the Collector were improperly acted upon for the purposes of the last general election inasmuch as the order of the Government extending the previous limits of the Pali municipality was published as late as 26-3-1959 only about a week prior to the date of the polling, and the Government was the only authority which have altered the limits under Section 7 of the Act, no powers thereunder having been delegated to the Collector or any other authority, and, therefore, in effect there was no validly delimited local area which could have gone to the polls, and almost the entire election programme right upto the settlement of the nomination of the various candidates was premature and ineffective and null and void.