In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh ...... F.A.O. No.7416 of 2010 (O&M) ..... Date of decision:3.8.2011 Darshan Lal and another .....Appellants v. Mangat Ram and others .....Respondents .... CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MOHINDER PAL ..... 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? ...... Present: Mr. Jaspreet Singh, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. A.S. Manaise, Advocate for respondent No.1. ..... Mohinder Pal, J. CM No.32741-CII of 2010: For the reasons stated in civil miscellaneous application, which is supported by an affidavit, the same is allowed and the delay of 50 days in filing the instant appeal is condoned. FAO No.7416 of 2010 (O&M): This appeal has been filed by appellants-Darshan Lal (respondent No.4 in the election petition) and Harjit Singh (respondent No.7 F.A.O. No.7416 of 2010 (O&M) [2] in the election petition) against the order dated 31.8.2010 passed by the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Batala (exercising the powers of Election Tribunal), Batala (for short - `the Tribunal'), whereby Election Petition filed by the respondent No.1-Mangat Ram (petitioner in the election petition) for setting aside the election of respondents No.1 to 5 (in the election petition) as Panches of Village Bhagtana Tullian, Block Dera Baba Nanak, District Gurdaspur has been allowed and the election of respondents No.1 to 5 in the election petition had been set aside and directions were issued for holding elections to the Panchayat of Village Bhagtana Tullian, Block Dera Baba Nanak, District Gurdaspur afresh. After hearing the learned counsel for the appellants and learned counsel for the respondent No.1 and going through the impugned order, I do not find any merit in this appeal. The appellants had sought setting aside the order of the Tribunal on the ground that the learned Tribunal has not taken into account the material fact that inquiry report dated 29.5.2009 conducted by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime Wing, Amritsar in FIR No.35 dated 4.6.2008 registered under Sections 131, 135, 135A of Punjab State Election Commission Act, 1994, Police Station Dera Baba Nanak has held that no booth capturing took place during the polling. It has also been observed in the inquiry report that C.D. relied upon does not bear any date or time, as such it could not be held that the C.D. was made on 26.5.2008 or on 28.5.2008. It is submitted that the learned Tribunal has not taken into account the statement of Tarlochan Singh, Polling Agent of Mangat Ram (respondent No.1), who had stated that nothing untoward had happened F.A.O. No.7416 of 2010 (O&M) [3] during the polling on 28.5.2008 and the election had been conducted smoothly. It is also submitted that the learned Tribunal did not afford any opportunity to the appellants to be heard before passing of the said impugned order. The learned Tribunal in its order has held that the allegation of corrupt electoral practices in the elections of Panches of Village Bhagtana Tullian, Block Dera Baba Nanak, District Gurdaspur is fully proved after viewing the CD which was video graphed during the polling which shows that both outside and inside the polling station situated at Government High School, Talwandi Goraya the polling goes on peacefully for some time but after some time certain persons started gathering outside the school premises. The polling station was captured and the ballot papers were stamped in wholesale by three-four persons, who were the persons of the appellants. No signatures or thumb-impressions were being taken on the counter-foils as shown in the C.D. It was also held that on examination of election record, it has been found that there were no signatures or thumb impressions of the electors/voters on the counterfoils of ballot-papers, which shows that bogus polling had taken place which was the natural corollary of booth capturing. It has also been held that this shows that grave electoral malpractice had taken place in the election. Despite opportunities having been given to the learned counsel for the appellants herein, he did not appear in the Court of the Tribunal to address his arguments which shows that ample opportunity was given to the appellants before passing the impugned order. Mangat Ram (respondent No.1) had filed a writ petition in the F.A.O. No.7416 of 2010 (O&M) [4] High Court on the basis of which the investigation of the case was marked to Crime Branch and as per the orders the inquiry had been conducted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Crime Wing, Amritsar. The DSP in his inquiry report had stated that from the secret as well as open investigation conducted by him it transpired that due to irregularities in the Panchayat election on 26.5.2008 of Village Bhagtana Tullian, the same were postponed to 28.5.2008. After viewing the C.D., it had come to light that this C.D. had been video graphed during the Panchayat elections of Village Talwandi Goraya and Bhagtana Tullian held on 28.5.2008 in which prima facie no disturbance has been found. However, Gurmukh Singh, who was the Presiding Officer had stated that some bad elements had entered in the shape of a mob and took away the ballot papers and he called the Police and got the ballot papers returned and the mob was removed from inside. The DSP had submitted that there was a political rivalry in the village as Mangat Ram belongs to Congress Party and had been the Sarpanch of the Village for the past 20 years. In the elections three candidates from Akali Dal alliance, namely, Darshan Lal (appellant), Baldev Singh and Amarjit Kaur had won and from the Congress Party Smt. Bua Ditti and Jaspinder Singh had won the election. As the Village Bhagtana Tullian had been declared as reserve category seat and due to the Akali Dal-BJP alliance and because of the majority, Darshan Lal (appellant) who belongs to the Scheduled Caste category had been declared elected as Sarpanch. As per his report, there was lots of party faction in Village Bhagtana Tullian and lot of political rivalry had been seen in the village. In his report although he could not ascertain the date and time of videography of the C.D. during the F.A.O. No.7416 of 2010 (O&M) [5] Panchayat election of Village Bhagtana Tullian and Village Talwandi Goraya on 26/28.5.2008 as the C.D. does not bear any date or time upon it, however, as per the statement of Gurmukh Singh, Presiding Officer, certain unknown persons had in fact entered the polling booth in the shape of a mob, who took away the ballot papers which were got back with the help of S.I. Vidya Sagar and other Police Officers and got the remaining election conducted without any interruption and with their consent declared the result of the election. As per his report Mangat Ram had made allegations due to political rivalry. From the above position, it is clear that malpractice had been adopted during the election process and even booth capturing had been done which resulted into postponing the election from 26.5.2008 to 28.5.2008. On 28.5.2008 also some persons, who were later on identified as the persons of the appellants, had taken the ballot papers out as per the statement of the Presiding Officer, which shows that the elections had been marred by corrupt and malpractice and which had rightly been set aside by the learned Tribunal. In view of above, I do not find any illegality in the order passed by the Tribunal. The appeal is accordingly hereby dismissed. August 3, 2011. (Mohinder Pal) Judge *hsp*