IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 17558 of 2008 DATE OF DECISION : 03.10.2008 Bagicha Singh .... PETITIONER Versus State of Punjab and others ..... RESPONDENTS CORAM :- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH Present: Mr. Sameer Sachdeva, Advocate, for the petitioner. * * * SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral ) The petitioner, who was declared elected as Panch of Gram Panchayat, Basti Soun Singh (Gurditi Wala), Tehsil Zira, District Ferozepur, from the seat reserved for Scheduled Caste category, has filed this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat. It is the case of the petitioner that the office of Sarpanch of the aforesaid Gram Panchayat is reserved for Scheduled Caste category and the petitioner was the only eligible candidate to contest the said election, but respondent No.5, who according to the petitioner is not a Scheduled Caste, has been illegally elected as Sarpanch in a meeting of the Panches of the Gram Panchayat, held on 12.9.2008. CWP No. 17558 of 2008 -2- It is not disputed that before being elected as Sarpanch, respondent No.5 had produced a Caste Certificate, showing him as belonging to Scheduled Caste. Counsel contends that the said Certificate was wrongly issued, because it could not have been issued to respondent No.5, as he belongs to Christian community. In nutshell, the petitioner is disputing the Caste Certificate of respondent No.5 and then further disputing the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat. We are of the opinion that on this ground, the petitioner has to challenge the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch by filing an election petition, as has been held by this Court in Baljit Singh v. State of Punjab and others (CWP No. 13643 of 2008, decided on August 22, 2008). In view of the availability of the remedy of election petition to the petitioner, we are not inclined to entertain this writ petition. Dismissed, without prejudice to the right of the petitioner to avail the remedy of election petition, in accordance with law. ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL ) JUDGE October 03, 2008 ( JASWANT SINGH ) ndj JUDGE