MD AFTAB ANSARI Vs. STATE ELECTION COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) With consent of the parties, hearing of the matter was done through video conferencing and there was no complaint whatsoever regarding audio and visual quality.

(2.) Before proceeding, it is relevant to mention here that the writ petitioner/appellant had filed one interlocutory application being I.A. No. 217 of 2020 for granting leave to make necessary amendment to challenge the vires of Section 18(2) of the Jharkhand Municipal Act, 2011. On 28.09.2020, learned Senior counsel appearing for the writ petitioner/appellant sought for leave to withdraw the aforesaid application with a liberty to challenge the vires in an appropriate proceeding. Accordingly, the aforesaid interlocutory application was dismissed as withdrawn with the aforesaid liberty, however, with an observation that the withdrawal of the aforesaid interlocutory application will not prejudice the case of the writ petitioner/appellant on its merit, by separate order dated 28.09.2020. Further, another interlocutory application being I.A. No. 11151 of 2019 was also filed wherein the prayer was made to implead one Sujit Kumar Singh who was declared elected in the mid-term election after disqualification of the writ petitioner/appellant but in course of argument submission has been made on behalf of the parties that the election was held during pendency of the connected proceeding and the said election was not challenged and as such, the aforesaid interlocutory application was not being pressed, accordingly the same was disposed of by separate order dated 28.09.2020. As prayed by the learned Senior counsel for the writ petitioner/appellant, the instant appeal is confined only to the issue of applicability of Section 18(2) of the Act, 2011 by which the State Election Commission has exercised the power while passing the impugned order and the quantum of debarment to contest the election.

(3.) The instant intra-court appeal is directed against the order dated 12.04.2018 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No. 1962 of 2016 whereby and whereunder the writ petition has been dismissed by not interfering with the order passed by the State Election Commission Jharkhand dated 25.02.2016 in Case No. 15 of 2015 whereby the writ petitioner/appellant has been disqualified from holding the post of Ward Councilor or Ward No.40 of Dhanbad Nagar Nigam with immediate effect and further ordered that the disqualification shall cease after six years of the General Municipal Election, 2015.