(1)No election to fill a seat or seats in a Grama Panchayat shall be called in question except by an election petition presented on one or more of the grounds specified in sub-section (1) of section 19 and section 20 to the [Civil Judge (Junior Division)] [Substituted by Act 29 of 1997 w.e.f. 20.10.1997.] within whose territorial jurisdiction the panchayat area concerned or the major portion of the panchayat area concerned is situate by any candidate at such election or by any voter qualified to vote at such election together with a deposit of five hundred rupees as security for costs, within thirty days from , but not earlier than, the date of declaration of the result of the election of the returned candidate or if there are more than one returned candidate at the election, and if the dates of declaration of the results of the their election are different, the last of those dates.(2)A petitioner shall join as respondent to his petition,-(a)where the petitioner, in addition to claiming a declaration that the election of all or of any of the returned candidates is void , claims a further declaration that he himself or any other candidate has been duly elected all the contesting candidates other than the petitioner, and where no such further declaration is claimed, all the returned candidates; and(b)any other candidate against whom allegation of any corrupt practice are made in the petition;(3)Every election petition shall be accompanied by as many copies thereof as there are respondents mentioned in the petition and every such copy shall be attested by the petitioner under his own signature to be true copy of the petition.Explanation. - The expression "returned candidate" means a candidate who has been declared as duly elected.
