IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT
CHANDIGARH
Civil Writ Petition No.10897 of 2009
Date of Decision: 23.07.2009
Ranjit Kaur
Petitioner
Versus
State of Punjab and others
Respondents
CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH
Present: Mr.Raj Kumar Arya, Advocate for the petitioner
.....
Jasbir Singh, J.(Oral)
Petitioner has filed this writ petition with a prayer to quash
order dated 21.6.2009(P7), vide which, on receipt of application from
respondent No.5, the officer concerned has ordered that the dispute
regarding issuance of scheduled case certificate to respondent No.5, be re-
verified.
Facts of the case indicates that petitioner and respondent No.5
were candidates for the post of a Panch in village Thakkar Sandhu, district
Gurdaspur. The petitioner was declared defeated whereas respondent No.5
was elected against the post reserved for a scheduled caste candidate. No
election petition was filed. Thereafter, a complaint was sent by the
petitioner to the Tehsildar by stating that scheduled caste certificate issued
in favour of respondent No.5, was fake. On receipt of her application,
notice was sent to respondent No.5, however, when she failed to appear,
certificate issued to her, was ordered to be cancelled. Against that order,
Civil Writ Petition No.10897 of 2009 2
respondent No.5 moved an application to the Deputy Commissioner, which
was dismissed vide order dated 26.5.2009. Order passed reads as under:-
“From the perusal of the file of Tehsildar’s office it is
made clear that Smt.Sabbi wife of Bittu @ Pasha resident of
village Thakar Sandhu had issued Show Cause Notice to
explain their position, but she was refused to sign on the
notice. Regarding this the signature of Nambardar and
Chowkidar have been obtained. Therefore, there is no need to
take action on the application dated 16.2.2009 and action be
initiated immediately on mark ‘X’.”
Perusal of the order shows that before passing order by the Tehsildar, no
opportunity of hearing was given to respondent No.5. Thereafter, it appears
that respondent No.5 sent one application to the Chief Minister, Punjab. It
was sent to the Deputy Commissioner for necessary action, on which, the
officer concerned made the following order and referred the application to
SDM, Gurdaspur:-
“Please reverify the issue regarding S.C. Certificate and
report within 10 days”
The enquiry is going on. This Court feels that the order passed
is perfectly justified. At no time, respondent No.5 was heard before
certificate issued to her was cancelled. In application before the Deputy
Commissioner, she has given reasons and the circumstances on account of
which she failed to appear before the Tehsildar. Those facts were not taken
note of. In view of above, this Court feels that the second enquiry is
perfectly justified. No case is made for interference.
Dismissed.
23.07.2009 (Jasbir Singh) gk Judge