FAO No. 5001 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH FAO No. 5001 of 2010 (O&M) Date of decision : 24.5.2011 Mohinder Singh .....Appellant versus Presiding Officer Election Tribunal-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), Ferozepur and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. O. P. Kamboj, Advocate for the appellant. Mr. Jitender Pal Singh, Advocate for respondent No. 1. **** RAJESH BINDAL, J. Challenge in the present appeal is to the order dated 19.07.2010 passed by the Election Tribunal-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner (General), Ferozepur (for short 'the Tribunal') whereby the election of the appellant as Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat of village Piareana @ Basti Jhugian, Tehsil and District Freozepur was set aside. The facts as are available on record are that the post of Sarpanch of the aforesaid Gram Panchayat was reserved for Scheduled Caste Woman. Though there were total five seats of Panches, three seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes (Men) and two seats were reserved for Scheduled Castes (Women), but the case as set up is that none of the Schedule Caste (woman) was FAO No. 5001 of 2010 2 ready to contest election for the post of Sarpanch. In these circumstances, the appellant who was also a scheduled caste candidate though male was elected as Sarpanch. A reference was made to notification issued by the State of Punjab dated 27.5.2008 to claim that in case the post of Sarpanch is reserved for Scheduled Caste Women Category and she refuses to contest the election of office of Sarpanch, then other Scheduled Caste Panch and Women Category Panches may be allowed to contest the election. However, the fact that the aforesaid notification issued by the Government of Punjab was infact withdrawn on 6.6.2008 vide memo No. DPE-1/2008/19065-84 is not in dispute. In the present case, the election of the Sarpanch was held on 19.07.2008. As per the original notification issued by the State Government the post of Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat was reserved for Scheduled Caste Women. Even if there was no candidate of that category for contesting the election, the Returning Officer had no jurisdiction to permit Panch of any other category to contest the election for the post of Sarpanch. The election of the appellant as Sarpach of the Gram Panchayat has rightly been set aside by the Tribunal. There is no merit in the present appeal, accordingly the same is dismissed. (RAJESH BINDAL) JUDGE May 24, 2011 Savita