Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Anjana Hada W/O Shri Amar Singh Hada vs State Of Rajasthan on 16 November, 2022
Author: Inderjeet Singh
Bench: Inderjeet Singh
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Civil Miscellaneous 2nd Stay Application No. 16272/2022
In
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 3485/2022
Anjana Hada W/o Shri Amar Singh Hada age about 42 years, R/o
Near Hanuman Temple Cable Nagar, Panchayat Alniya Tehsil
Ladpura District Kota Raj.
----Petitioner
Versus
1. State Of Rajasthan, throught Secretary, Panchayat Raj
Department, Government of Rajasthan Secretariat
2. Chief Executive Officer, Jila Parishad, Kota
3. Block Development Officer, Panchayat Samiti Ladpura,
Kota, Raj.
4. Gram Panchayat Alniya, through its Secretary, Panchayat
Samiti Ladpura District Kota, Raj.
----Respondent
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Sajid Ali For Respondent(s) : Mr. Gajanand Mishra
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE INDERJEET SINGH Order 16/11/2022 Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the elections for the post in question are going to be held tomorrow i.e. on 17.11.2022 and hence prayed to stay the election process.
Counsel for the respondents opposed the stay application and submitted that the notification with regard to the elections has already been issued by State Election Commission, Rajasthan on 28.10.2022 and once the notification has been issued, no (Downloaded on 19/11/2022 at 09:28:52 PM) (2 of 3) [CMS-16272/2022] interference is required to be made by this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
Heard counsel for the parties and perused the record. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of 2016 (4) SCC 429 [Shaji K. Joseph Vs. V. Viswanath & Ors.] in paras 14 and 15 held as under:-
"14. In our opinion, the High Court was not right in interfering with the process of election especially when the process of election had started upon publication of the election program on 27th January, 2011 and more particularly when an alternative statutory remedy was available to Respondent No. 1 by way of referring the dispute to the Central Government as per the provisions of Section 5 of the Act read with Regulation 20 of the Regulations. So far as the issue with regard to eligibility of Respondent No. 1 for contesting the election is concerned, though prima facie it appears that Respondent No. 1 could contest the election, we do not propose to go into the said issue because, in our opinion, as per the settled law, the High Court should not have interfered with the election after the process of election had commenced. The judgments referred to hereinabove clearly show the settled position of law to the effect that whenever the process of election starts, normally courts should not interfere with the process of election for the simple reason that if the process of election is interfered with by the courts, possibly no election would be completed without court's order. Very often, for frivolous reasons candidates or others approach the courts and by virtue of interim orders passed by courts, the election is delayed or cancelled and in such a case the basic purpose of having election and getting an elected body to run the administration is frustrated. For the aforestated reasons, this Court has taken a view that all disputes with regard to election should be dealt with only after completion of the election.
15. This Court, in Ponnuswami v. Returning Officer (supra) has held that once the election (Downloaded on 19/11/2022 at 09:28:52 PM) (3 of 3) [CMS-16272/2022] process starts, it would not be proper for the courts to interfere with the election process. Similar view was taken by this Court in Shri Sant Sadguru Janardan Swami (Moingiri Maharaj) Sahakari Dugdha Utpadak Sanstha v. State of Maharashtra (supra)."
In that view of the matter, no case is made out to grant stay as the election process has already been initiated vide notification dated 28.10.2022.
Accordingly, the second stay application stands dismissed. However, the result of the election shall remain subject to final outcome of the writ petition.
(INDERJEET SINGH),J AARZOO ARORA /15 (Downloaded on 19/11/2022 at 09:28:52 PM) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)