Punjab-Haryana High Court
Davinder Kapoor And Others vs State Of Punjab And Others on 15 October, 2008
Author: Jaswant Singh
Bench: Satish Kumar Mittal, Jaswant Singh
IN THE HIGH COURT FOR THE STATES OF PUNJAB AND
HARYANA, CHANDIGARH
C.W.P.No.12952 of 2008
Date of decision: 15.10.2008
Davinder Kapoor and others
......Petitioner(s)
Versus
State of Punjab and others
...Respondent(s)
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH
Present: Mr. A.K. Chopra, Sr. Advocate
with Harminder Singh, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. M.S. Sindhu, Addl.A.G, Punjab for respondents No.1 & 2. Mr. Salil Sagar, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Samrath Sagar, Advocate for respondents No.3 & 4. Mr. M.S. Bedi, Advocate for respondent No.5.
JASWANT SINGH,J Petitioners, three elected members of the Municipal Council, Ferozepur (For Short "Municipal Council"), have filed the present writ petition seeking a direction to respondent No.3-convener/Presiding Officer to sign the proceeding book incorporating the proceedings pertaining to the special meeting of the Municipal Council held on 22.7.2008 for taking oath by the elected members of the Municipal Council and for election of President and Vice Presidents, wherein the petitioners had been elected as President, Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President respectively; with a further prayer for directing respondent No.1-Government of Punjab to notify their election in the official gazette as envisaged under Section 24 Sub Section (2) of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911.
It is stated that the elections of the members of the Municipal Council were held on 30.6.2008 and 25 members including the petitioners were declared elected. A list of 25 elected members was duly notified by the Government of Punjab on 9.7.2008. The Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur-respondent No.2 vide his letter dated 11.7.2008 fixed a date for C.W.P.No.12952 of 2008 #2# taking oath and affirmation of allegiance by the elected members as also electing the President, Senior Vide President and Junior Vice President and appointed the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Zira-respondent No.3 as convener for the said special meeting. Respondent No.3, the convener, vide his letter dated 17.7.2008 (Annexure P.3) informed all the elected members regarding the direction of the Deputy Commissioner-respondent No.2 for taking oath and holding of the election to the aforesaid posts on 22.7.2008 at 10.00 A.M at Town Hall i.e the office of the Municipal Council.
It is averred that on the appointed date, time and place, 18 elected members out of 25 elected members came present and their attendance was marked and the elected members present took oath and signed the required document incorporating the oath taken by them. Thereafter, after following the procedure, the election was held and petitioner No.1 was elected as the President, petitioner No.2 was elected as Senior Vice President and petitioner No.3 was elected as Junior Vice President.
It is the case of the petitioner that after the election of the petitioners as President and Vice Presidents, the proceedings were duly recorded in the proceeding book of the Municipal Council by respondent No.5 and when the same were being signed by the members, respondent No.6-Ashwani Grover (one of the elected Municipal Councillors) along with respondents No.7 & 8 and some other persons came to the meeting. They snatched away the proceeding book as also the attendance register and ran away with the same. The police personnel posted outside the Town Hall restored the two said registers and respondent No.3-convener, thereafter, at the instance of persons in authority/political bosses left the meeting without signing the proceeding book and other documents including the oath and affirmation of allegiance duly signed by the present elected members. Hence the present writ petition.
Upon notice, separate replies have been filed by respondents No.1 & 2, respondent No.3-convener and respondent No.5. Respondent No.3-convener has averred that before the oath ceremony of 18 elected members could take place, all of a sudden, some unidentified persons entered the meeting place and forcibly snatched the attendance and C.W.P.No.12952 of 2008 #3# proceeding register and ran away with the same and at that moment, the elected members, who were present in the Hall started quarreling and slapping each other. Therefore, in such a complete pandemonium and melee and keeping in view the gravity of the situation, he postponed the meeting as in his opinion, it was impractical to continue with the meeting. A letter dated 22.7.2008 Annexure R.3/1, to this effect, was despatched to the various authorities intimating the decision. It has been further averred that the attendance register has not been traced out till date. It has been categorically stated that no oath ceremony or election had taken place in the presence of the convener(respondent No.3) as he had left the meeting under police security after postponing the meeting before the conduct of the said event.
We have heard the counsel for the parties.
Counsel for the petitioners while referring to the photographs annexed as Annexure P.5 has tried to establish that on 22.7.2008, the special meeting for taking oath of the elected members as also electing the President and Vice Presidents had validly taken place and the elected members had taken oath as also the petitioners had been duly elected as President, Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President respectively and it is only at the stage of signing of the proceeding book that the same was snatched. It was further argued that the registers had been restored and only on account of the malafide action of respondent No.3, in connivance with respondent No.6 and political bosses, the proceedings were not signed and the meeting was illegally postponed.
On the other hand, counsel for the respondents have referred to the averments made in the written statement indicating that under the circumstances, there was no option for respondent No.3-convener but to postpone the meeting. It has been argued that no proper meeting, no proper oath or any proceeding recorded in the presence of the convener-respondent No.3.
After giving our thoughtful consideration to the rival submissions, we are unable to convince ourselves to interfere in the present case in exercise of our jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. It is the categoric stand of the convener-respondent No.3 that in the meeting held on 22.7.2008, neither the oath to the elected members nor the C.W.P.No.12952 of 2008 #4# election of the office of President and Vice Presidents of the Municipal Council could take place due to the disruption of the proceedings of the meeting. There is no material produced on record to show that the stand of the respondent-convener of the meeting could be disbelieved. From mere reference to the photographs produced at Annexure P.5, no adverse inference can be drawn that the oath was given and the election of the office of President/Vice Presidents had taken place. Even otherwise, we are of the opinion that no prejudice would be caused to the petitioners, especially in view of their contention that they are 16 out of 25 elected members on one side and thus have nothing to fear, if a fresh special meeting is convened for taking oath and election of the President/Vice Presidents of the Municipal Council.
In view of the above, present writ petition is dismissed with a direction to the authorities to convene a fresh special meeting immediately for taking oath and electing President/Vice President of the Municipal Council.
( JASWANT SINGH )
JUDGE
October 15, 2008 ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL )
manoj JUDGE