Court No. - 74
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 12582 of 2021 Petitioner :- Smt. Suman Devi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Yashwant Pratap Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble J.J. Munir,J.
This petition has been filed by the petitioner, who contested elections for the Office of Pradhan, relating to Gram Sabha Awarwa, District - Kushinagar, under the reserved constituency of Female Scheduled Caste. In the said election, respondent no.
4 was returned elected. Now, the petitioner wants, on a representation made to the Collector and the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of the District, to cancel the fourth respondent's candidature and restrain her from taking charge as the Pradhan, on ground that she is not eligible under the relevant reservation category. It is submitted that the fourth respondent had earlier contested elections for the Office of Pradhan under the category of Female Scheduled Caste, and has now claimed under the Female Scheduled Tribe, which, ex-facie, renders her ineligible to maintain her candidature for the current office that she has been elected to.
Learned Standing Counsel has opposed the motion to admit this writ petition to hearing.
Upon consideration of the matter and perusal of papers, this Court finds that the relief sought by the petitioner is misconceived.
In case, the petitioner wishes to assail the validity of the fourth respondent's election on ground that she is not eligible under the reservation category for Female Scheduled Tribe, the petitioner's remedy is to move an election petition under Section 12-C of the The Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 before the Tribunal appointed for the purpose. It is only in an election petition that this issue can be gone into and if proved by the petitioner, the election set aside. This cannot be done in a writ petition, which is clearly misconceived and not maintainable.
The petitioner shall, however, have liberty to move an election petition, subject, of course, to the rule of limitation and in accordance with law.
Subject to what has been indicated above, this Court finds this petition to be not maintainable. It is, accordingly, dismissed.
There shall, however, be no order as to costs.
Order Date :- 24.5.2021 I. Batabyal Digitally signed by Jahangir Jamshed Munir Date: 2021.05.25 13:16:07 IST Reason: Document Owner Location: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad