Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 27406 of 2021 Petitioner :- Raina Devi Respondent :- Sub Divisional Magistrate And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Jagdish Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
1. Heard Sri Jagdish Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel for respondents State.
2. It is contended that petitioner who had lost election of Gram Pradhan had filed an election petition on 10.06.2021. Notices were issued to contesting respondents and publication was also made.
3. According to petitioner, matter is pending for last three months and number of dates have been fixed but no progress has been made in the matter.
4. Learned counsel has very fairly submitted that though there is no provision under U.P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 prescribing period for deciding the election petition within any fixed frame of time but he has relied upon Section 86(7) of Representation of People Act, 1951 wherein it is provided that every endeavour shall be made by the court to expeditiously decide the election petition within a span of six months.
5. Sri Singh emphasised that once the provision is there for direction for deciding the election dispute in matters relating to Members of Parliament and Legislative Assembly, the same principle/analogy will apply for deciding the election dispute of Gram Pradhan as it is the smallest unit of our electoral system.
6. He further contended that now Panchayat has been brought under Part IX of Constitution of India by 73rd Amendment, 1992, thus, a direction may be issued for expediting the election petition of Gram Pradhan.
7. After hearing argument of learned counsel for petitioner, this Court finds that there is force in argument, thus, prescribed authority i.e. respondent no. 1, Sub Divisional Magistrate/ Deputy District Officer, Deoria, is directed to make every endeavour to expeditiously conclude the election petition within six months, from the date of production of copy of this order downloaded from official website of this Court.
8. Writ petition stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 29.10.2021 V.S.Singh