FAO No. 3555 of 2009 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 3555 of 2009 (O&M) Date of decision: 11.12.2009 Parkash Singh .. Appellant v. Sahib Singh and others .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. Karanjit Singh, Advocate for the appellant. ... Rajesh Bindal J. Challenge in the present appeal is to the order dated 17.2.2009, passed by the Election Tribunal, whereby the election petition filed by the appellant was dismissed. The appellant in the present case filed his nomination papers for election as Panch against a post reserved for Scheduled Caste. The elections were for the Gram Panchayat of village Rataul, Tehsil and District Tarn Taran. Initially, the nomination papers were accepted. However, later on, it was found that the appellant had not attached his caste certificate with the nomination papers and he had not tick marked the column requiring attachment of caste certificate either as “attached” or “not”. Even on record, the caste certificate was not found. Caste Certificate (Ex. P1) placed on record though shown to have been issued by Tehsildar at Tarn Taran was undated. Considering the aforesaid facts, the Election Tribunal opined that the appellant being not eligible to contest the election for the post reserved for Scheduled Caste, his candidature was rightly withdrawn. Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the appellant had in fact produced his caste certificate along with the nomination papers, but due to political interference, the same was detached by some interested person and the other two candidates, who had also contested the election in the reserve category, were declared unopposed. After hearing learned counsel for the appellant, I do not find any merit in the submissions made. Merely because initially the nomination papers of the appellant were accepted and later on, it was found that he had not even FAO No. 3555 of 2009 [2] attached his caste certificate and further not even ticked the column mentioning the attachment of certificate either as “attached” or “not”, his nomination papers were not complete for permitting him to contest against the reserve seat. The caste certificate, which was produced before the Election Tribunal, though stated to have been issued by Tehsildar, Tarn Taran, is undated and accordingly no reliance can be placed even on that to form an opinion that the certificate having been issued before the filing of the nomination papers, may have been attached by the appellant along with it. For the reasons mentioned above, I do not find any reason to differ with the opinion expressed by the Election Tribunal. Accordingly, the present appeal is dismissed. Consequently, the application for condonation of delay is also dismissed. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge 11.12.2009 mk