IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 11686 of 2008 ( O&M ) DATE OF DECISION : 06.11.2008 Jagpreet 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. Gautam Dutt, Advocate, for the petitioners. * * * SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral ) The petitioners have filed application (CM No. 18449 of 2008) for modification of the order dated 17.7.2008, whereby the amended writ petition, filed by them, was admitted and ordered to be heard along with CWP No. 9140 of 2008. It was further ordered that the interim order in the present case will be in the same terms as in CWP No. 9140 of 2008. In the application, it has been stated that CWP No. 9140 of 2008 was disposed of with a direction to the State Election Commission to consider the representation of the petitioner in that petition, in terms of the order dated 21.5.2008 passed by this Court in CWP No. 8448 of 2008, entitled Balbir Kaur and others Vs. State of Punjab and others. In view of these facts, the petitioners have prayed for modification of the order dated 17.7.2008. CWP No. 11686 of 2008 -2- With the consent of learned counsel for the petitioners, we have taken the main writ petition for hearing, so that the same can be disposed of. The petitioners, in the present case, filed nomination papers for contesting the election of Panches of Gram Panchayat, Village Bullowal, Tehsil Batala, District Gurdaspur, which was to be held on 26.5.2008. It is the case of the petitioners that their nomination papers were illegally rejected by the Returning Officer on 16.5.2008 on the ground that they did not file the nomination papers within scheduled time. Thereafter, the petitioners filed CWP No. 8597 of 2008 seeking directions to the State Election Commission to accept their nomination papers. The said writ petition was disposed of on 21.5.2008 with a direction to the State Election Commission to expeditiously consider their representation and decide the same before 24.5.2008. Accordingly, the representation of the petitioners was considered and the same was rejected by the Additional District Election Officer, Gurdaspur on 24.5.2008 and 7 Panches of the Gram Panchayat were declared elected as unopposed. Thereafter, their result was also duly notified. Hence, the instant petition was filed by the petitioners challenging the aforesaid order dated 24.5.2008 as well as for setting aside the election of the returned candidates. Subsequently, the writ petition was amended and was admitted on 17.7.2008. After hearing counsel for the petitioners, we are of the opinion that after declaration of the result of the election of the Panchayat members and the issuance of notification of the elected Panches, the only remedy CWP No. 11686 of 2008 -3- available to the petitioners is to challenge the election of the returned candidates by way of filing the election petition under section 76 read with Section 89 of the Punjab State Election Commission Act, 1994. Since the petitioners have not availed the said remedy and have filed this writ petition on 9.7.2008, well within the time prescribed for filing the election petition, we relegate the petitioners to avail the remedy of election petition. However, in view of decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Danda Rajeshwari v. Bodavula Hanumayamma and others, (1996) 6 SCC 199, the petitioners are permitted to file election petition within three weeks from today and in case election petition is filed within the said period, the Election Tribunal is directed to entertain and decide the same on merits, expeditiously. With the aforesaid liberty, the writ petition is dismissed. ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL ) JUDGE November 06, 2008 ( JASWANT SINGH ) ndj JUDGE