Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 37356 of 2018 Petitioner :- Kalpana Upadhyay Respondent :- State Of U P And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Pankaj Kumar Shukla Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Anshu Chaudhary,Ashwani Kumar Srivastava,R D Tiwari,Sri Ashwani Kumar Srivastava
Hon'ble Shashi Kant Gupta,J. Hon'ble Mrs. Manju Rani Chauhan,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri M.D. Singh Shekhar, Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Anshu Chaudhary, learned counsel for the Respondents No. 3 and 4, learned Standing Counsel and perused the record.
The applicant was elected as member of Zila Panchayat, Hathras on 1.11.2015. She tendered her resignation from the membership of the Zila Panchayat on 3.11.2017 to the District Magistrate, Hathras, Respondent No. 2. However, immediately after 2 days, she withdrew the said resignation on 5.11.2017 but still the District Magistrate, Hathras, Respondent No. 2 without considering the aforesaid vital fact has accepted the alleged resignation after a lapse of more than 11 months on 1.10.2018, which was communicated to her by the Respondent No. 4 through his letter dated 15.10.2018. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submitted that according to Section 24 of the U.P. Kshettra Panchayat and Zila Panchayat Adhiniyam, 1961 (in short "Zila Panchayat Act") elected member of Zila Panchayat may resign his office by writing under his hand addressed to the Adhyaksha and the said letter of resignation to be delivered to Mukya Adhikari, Zila Panchayat. However, in the present case, the resignation was neither addressed to the Adhyaksha Zila Panchayat nor it was accepted by Adhyaksha. It was further submitted that the alleged resignation letter which was immediately withdrawn was accepted by the District Magistrate, Hathras and not by Adhyaksha. Simply the Adhyaksha communicated the petitioner about the impugned letter sent by the District Magistrate, as such, the said resignation letter will have to be treated as non-est in the eyes of law, invalid and incapable of being implemented or acted upon. He further submitted that the petitioner had participated in the board meeting of Zila Panchayat, Hathras on 22.9.2017, 24.3.2018 and 2.5.2018 and carried on other functions of Zila Panchayat, Hathras without any hindrance or objection.
The matter requires consideration.
As prayed by the learned counsel for the respondents, three weeks' time is granted for filing counter affidavit. The petitioner will have one week's time thereafter for filing rejoinder affidavit.
List thereafter.
Till the next date of listing, the effect and operation of the letter/order no. 375/Ji.Pa./2018 dated 15.10.2018 passed by the Respondent No. 4 communicating the decision of the Respondent No. 2 shall remain stayed. The respondents shall not interfere in the peaceful functioning of the petitioner as a member of Ward No. 12 of Zila Panchayat, Hathras.
Order Date :- 26.11.2018 vinay