Court No. - 40
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 11217 of 2021 Petitioner :- Santosh And 19 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 5 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Shiv Bahadur Singh,Satyawan Yadav Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Manoj Misra,J.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
We have heard Dr. S.B. Singh for the petitioners; Sri Tarun Agrawal for the State Election Commission as well for the respondent no.3; and Sri S.K. Mehrotra, learned Standing Counsel for the respondents 1, 2, 4 and 5.
The petitioners have prayed for a direction upon the third and fourth respondents to include their name in the voter list of Village Panchayat Ishapur (Padirav), Block and Tehsil Phoolpur, District Azamgarh.
Attention of the Court has been invited to the provisions of Section 9(8) of U.P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947, which provides as follows:-
"Where the Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer is satisfied after making such inquiry as it may deem fit, whether on an application made to it or on its own motion, that any entry in the electoral roll should be corrected or deleted or that the name of any person entitled to be registered should be added in the electoral roll, it shall subject to the provisions of this Act and rules and orders made thereunder, correct, delete or add the entry, as the case may be :
Provided that no such correction, deletion or addition shall be made after the last date for making nominations for an election in the Gram Panchayat and before the completion of that election:
Provided further that no deletion or correction of any entry in respect of any person affecting his interest adversely shall be made without giving him reasonable opportunity of being head in respect of the action proposed to be taken in relation to him."
By placing reliance on the aforesaid provision, the learned counsel for the petitioners has urged that even though the process of election has commenced by notification, but since statute itself permits the Electoral Registration Officer or the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer to correct or delete the name of any person in the electoral roll till the last date of making nomination, a direction can be issued to the Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer to exercise power.
Sri Tarun Agrawal, who appears for the State Election Commission, submits that this is only an enabling provision and is subject to the other provisions of the Act and Rules and orders made thereunder therefore it would not be appropriate for this Court to issue any direction though the Court may leave it open to the petitioners to invoke the power of Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer.
In view of the above, we deem it appropriate to dispose off this petition by giving liberty to the petitioners to invoke the power of Electoral Registration Officer or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer as provided by sub-section (8) of Section 9 of the U.P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947, if so advised.
The petition stands disposed off.
Order Date :- 5.4.2021 AKShukla/-