Bagicha Singh vs State Of Punjab And Others on 3 October, 2008

      IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
                     CHANDIGARH.

                                                   C.W.P. No. 17558 of 2008
                                         DATE OF DECISION : 03.10.2008

Bagicha Singh
                                                            .... PETITIONER

                                   Versus

State of Punjab and others

                                                        ..... RESPONDENTS

CORAM :- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL
            HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASWANT SINGH


Present:    Mr. Sameer Sachdeva, Advocate,
            for the petitioner.

                         ***

SATISH KUMAR MITTAL , J. ( Oral )

The petitioner, who was declared elected as Panch of Gram

Panchayat, Basti Soun Singh (Gurditi Wala), Tehsil Zira, District Ferozepur,

from the seat reserved for Scheduled Caste category, has filed this petition

under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for setting aside the

election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat.

It is the case of the petitioner that the office of Sarpanch of the

aforesaid Gram Panchayat is reserved for Scheduled Caste category and the

petitioner was the only eligible candidate to contest the said election, but

respondent No.5, who according to the petitioner is not a Scheduled Caste,

has been illegally elected as Sarpanch in a meeting of the Panches of the

Gram Panchayat, held on 12.9.2008.

CWP No. 17558 of 2008 -2-

It is not disputed that before being elected as Sarpanch,

respondent No.5 had produced a Caste Certificate, showing him as

belonging to Scheduled Caste. Counsel contends that the said Certificate

was wrongly issued, because it could not have been issued to respondent

No.5, as he belongs to Christian community. In nutshell, the petitioner is

disputing the Caste Certificate of respondent No.5 and then further

disputing the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch of the Gram

Panchayat. We are of the opinion that on this ground, the petitioner has to

challenge the election of respondent No.5 as Sarpanch by filing an election

petition, as has been held by this Court in Baljit Singh v. State of Punjab

and others (CWP No. 13643 of 2008, decided on August 22, 2008). In view

of the availability of the remedy of election petition to the petitioner, we are

not inclined to entertain this writ petition.

Dismissed, without prejudice to the right of the petitioner to

avail the remedy of election petition, in accordance with law.

                                          ( SATISH KUMAR MITTAL )
                                                  JUDGE



October 03, 2008                                ( JASWANT SINGH )
ndj                                                   JUDGE