IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 13775 of 2008 DATE OF DECISION : 28.08.2008 Gurpreet Kaur 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. Veneet Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioners. SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral ) The petitioners, who are Panches of Gram Panchayat, Village Fatehpur Rajputan, Block Jandiala Guru, Tehsil and District Amritsar, have filed this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, for issuing direction to respondents No.1 to 4 to notify the name of petitioner No.1 as Sarpanch of the aforesaid Gram Panchayat, being in majority i.e. having support of 5 Panches out of total 9 Panches. It has been stated in the petition that initially, the meeting for election of Sarpanch was held on 12.7.2008, but due to incomplete quorum, the meeting was adjourned. Counsel for the petitioners submits that in the second meeting held on 29.7.2008, respondent No.6 was declared elected as Sarpanch of the aforesaid Gram Panchayat. It is the case of the petitioners that the said meeting was totally contrary to the guidelines issued by this Court in CWP No. 12694 of 2008, titled as Gurmeet Singh versus State of Punjab and others, decided on July 23, 2008, and respondent No.6 was illegally elected. It is the further case of the petitioners that they were not CWP No. 13775 of 2008 -2- allowed to attend the said meeting for election of Sarpanch of the aforesaid Gram Panchayat. After hearing counsel for the petitioners and going through the contents of this petition, we are of the opinion that in this petition, the disputed questions of facts have been raised, which cannot be gone into in the writ jurisdiction of this Court. This Court in Baljit Singh v. State of Punjab and others (CWP No. 13643 of 2008, decided on August 22, 2008), has held that in view of Clause (b) of Article 243-O of the Constitution of India and Section 74 of the Punjab State Election Commission 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. In the facts and circumstances of the case, no exceptional case is made out to invoke the extra ordinary powers of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the election of Sarpanch. Thus, we do not find any ground to entertain this petition. Dismissed. However, it will be open for the petitioners to avail the remedy of election petition under section 76 read with section 89 of the Act. 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 28, 2008 ( JASWANT SINGH ) ndj JUDGE