IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 13874 of 2008 DATE OF DECISION : 22.08.2008 Gurvinder Singh and others .... PETITIONERS Versus State of Punjab and others ..... RESPONDENTS CORAM :- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE DAYA CHAUDHARY Present: Mr. Sukhdeep S. Sandhu, Advocate, for the petitioners. * * * SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral ) The petitioners, who are Panches of Gram Panchayat Village Tarkhanwala, Block and Tehsil Malout, District Muktsar, and are in majority, have filed this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, for setting aside the election of respondent No.8 as Sarpanch, on the ground that in spite of the fact that the petitioners were present at the time and place of the meeting held on 26.7.2008, they were not permitted to attend the meeting and respondent No.8 was wrongly declared elected, even though he was not having the majority. After arguing for some time, counsel for the petitioners states that in view of the disputed questions of facts raised in this writ petition and further in view of the decision of this Court in Baljit Singh v. State of CWP No. 13874 of 2008 -2- Punjab and others (CWP No. 13643 of 2008, decided on August 22, 2008), wherein it has been held that in view of Clause (b) of Article 243-O of the Constitution of India and Section 76 of the Punjab State Election Act, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as `the Act'), election of Sarpanch is to be challenged by filing an election petition under section 76 on the grounds mentioned in Section 89 of the Act, the petitioners may be permitted to withdraw this petition with liberty to avail the remedy of election petition. Dismissed as withdrawn with the aforesaid liberty. However, if the election petition is filed by the petitioners in accordance with law, the Election Tribunal is directed to decide the same expeditiously. ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL ) JUDGE August 22, 2008 ( DAYA CHAUDHARY ) ndj JUDGE