IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 13095 of 2008 DATE OF DECISION : 14.11.2008 Jagir Singh and others .... PETITIONERS Versus State of Punjab and others ..... RESPONDENTS CORAM :- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH Present: Mr. M.S. Khaira, Senior Advocate, with Mr. Dharminder Singh, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. M.S. Sindhu, Addl. A.G., Punjab, for respondents No.1 to 4. Mr. M.S. Bedi, Advocate, for respondents No.5 to 7. * * * SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral ) The petitioners, who are 6 elected Panches in the 9 member Gram Panchayat of Village Babri Nangal, Tehsil and District Gurdaspur, have filed this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the proceedings dated 16.7.2008, in which respondent No.5 was elected as Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat. It is the case of the petitioners that the proceeding book has been tampered with and in the said proceedings, petitioner No.1 was CWP No. 13095 of 2008 -2- elected, but subsequently, by tampering with the proceedings, respondent No.5 was wrongly declared elected. Undisputedly, election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat has been notified on 14.8.2008. After hearing counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the written statement filed on behalf of respondents No.1 to 3, we are of the opinion that the disputed questions of facts have been raised in this petition, which cannot be gone into by this court, particularly when in view of decision of this Court in Baljit Singh v. State of Punjab and others (CWP No. 13643 of 2008, decided on August 22, 2008), the petitioners have the remedy to challenge the election of respondent No.5 by filing election petition. Therefore, we relegate the petitioners to the remedy of election petition. Since this petition was filed well within 45 days of the election of Sarpanch, therefore, in view of decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Danda Rajeshwari v. Bodavula Hanumayamma and others, (1996) 6 SCC 199, we permit the petitioners to file election petition challenging the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch, within three weeks from today, and in case election petition is filed within three weeks, the Election Tribunal is directed to entertain and decide the same on merits, expeditiously. ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL ) JUDGE November 14, 2008 ( JASWANT SINGH ) ndj JUDGE