Viney Mittal, J.@mdashThe Municipal Council, Ferozepur City comprises of 26 Municipal Councillors. 25 of the Municipal Councillors are elected members, whereas, remaining one member is the local MLA being an ex-officio member of the Municipal Council. Elections to the Municipal Council were held in March 2003. Besides the post of the President, there are two offices of the Vice President in the Municipal Council. The tenure of the offices of the Vice President is one year from the date of election. The terms of two earlier Vice Presidents elected on April 10, 2003 expired in April, 2004. Accordingly, fresh elections were required to be held for the aforesaid two posts of Vice President.
2. The petitioners claim that they were trying and continuously approaching the Municipal Council, Ferozepur and the Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur for calling a meeting of the Municipal Council to elect the aforesaid two Vice Presidents. However, no meeting was held. On representation made by some members, a meeting of the Municipal Council was fixed for February 4, 2005. However, on direction''s issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur the meeting was adjourned to February 10, 2004. The petitioners claim that a meeting of the Municipal Councillors was held on February 10, 2005 for the purposes of election of the senior Vice President and a junior Vice President. However, they were prevented by police force and some other unsocial elements from entering into the Town Hall, Ferozepur where the election was scheduled to be held. Accordingly, they had their own meeting. It is claimed by the petitioners that they were 16 Municipal Councillors including local MLA being the ex-officio member. In the aforesaid meeting, they elected Sh. Satpal as a Senior Vice President and Sh. Davinder Bajaj as a Junior Vice President. However, a meeting was held in the Town Hall Ferozepur City as well. The petitioners claim that in the aforesaid meeting, there were only 10 members present. In the aforesaid meeting held in the presence of the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ferozepur, Shri Gurdeep Singh Dhillon was elected as Senior Vice President and Shri Lavkesh Bhandari was elected as Junior Vice President. It has been claimed by the petitioners that the aforesaid meeting held in the Town Hall was in fact totally unauthorised, illegal and sham proceedings. Accordingly, the petitioners have approached this Court through the present petition claiming that the aforesaid Resolution electing Gurdeep Singh Dhillon and Lavkesh Bhandari as Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President, respectively, be set aside.
3. The petitioners have also levelled serious allegations of malafide against the Sub Divisional Magistrate, respondent No. 4 and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Punjab respondent No. 5. It has been claimed that the aforesaid proceedings were held by the Sub Divisional Magistrate under the influence of respondent No. 5. It has further been claimed by the petitioners that in any case, the election of the Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President through the aforesaid Resolution Annexure P.4 was contrary to the law and, therefore, was liable to be set aside.
4. The claim of the petitioners has been contested by the respondents. Various objections have been taken by the respondents. It has been specifically denied that the elections to the post of Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President were conducted under the influence of respondent No. 5. It has also been claimed by the respondents that due procedure was followed.
5. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties at some length and have also gone through the records of the case.
6. Sh. S.P. Jain, the learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioners has primarily challenged the elections of Gurdeep Singh Dhillon and Lavkesh Bhandari, respondents No. 7 and 8, respectively, on the ground of violation of Rule 5(2) of the Punjab Municipal (President and Vice President) Election Rules, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules). On the strength of the aforesaid Rules, it has been contended by the learned senior counsel that when there are two offices of Vice President of a Municipality and both such offices are to be filled, then voting is required to take place at same election for both the offices of the Vice Presidents of a Municipality and each member of the Municipality could cast only one vote. Two candidates who obtained largest cumber of votes would be deemed to be elected and the candidate obtaining largest number of votes was to be declared as the Senior Vice President. Thus, the learned senior counsel has maintained that the entire procedure for electing respondents No. 7 and 8 as Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President was contrary to the aforesaid Rules, inasmuch as, the perusal of Annexure P.4 shows that earlier the name of Gurdeep Singh Dhillon was proposed as Senior Vice President and he was declared as elected to the aforesaid office and later on the name of Lavkesh Bhandari was proposed who was also declared elected as Junior Vice President. The learned senior counsel has challenged the aforesaid procedure being contrary to the Rule 5(2) of the Rules.
7. On the other hand, Sh. J.S. Bedi, the learned counsel for respondent No. 7 has argued that as per Rules 4 and 5 (1) of the Rules, the proper procedure has been followed and since for each post i.e. for the post of Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President, there was only one candidate each, therefore, Rule 5(1) of the Rules was attracted.
8. We have given our thoughtful consideration to the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties. For proper appreciation of the aforesaid contentions, we may notice the provisions of Rules 4 and 5 of the Rules as under:
"4. Voting by show of hands.- (1) The voting for the offices of President, Senior Vice President any Vice President, as the case may be, shall be by show of hands.
(2) The person presiding over the meeting convened under Rule 3, shall keep a brief record in writing.
5. Conduct of election.- (1), When the office of the President or the Vice President is to be filled-
(a) If only one candidate for the office is proposed, he shall be declared to have been elected.
(b) If there is more than one candidate, the candidate who obtains the largest number of votes shall be declared to have been elected; and
(c) If two or more candidates obtain an equal number of votes, the person presiding over the meeting shall at once decide between the candidates by drawing a lot in the presence of the members attending the meeting.
(2) When there are two offices of Vice President of a Municipality and both such offices are to be filled-
(a) Voting s hall take place at same election for both the offices of the Vice President of a Municipality shall record one vote only;
(b) the two candidates who obtain the largest number of votes shall be deemed to be elected.
Provided that if owing to the fact that two candidates have obtained the largest number of votes, the matter shall be decided by a lot in the manner specified in Clause (c) of Sub-rule (1); and
(c) the candidate obtaining the largest number of votes shall be deemed to have been declared by the Municipality to be the Senior Vice President and the candidate obtaining the second largest number of votes shall be deemed to be the Junior Vice President, provided that if both the candidates elected have obtained an equal number of votes, the matter shall be decided by a lot in the manner specified in Clause (c) of Sub-rule (1)."
9. From the perusal of the aforesaid Rules, it is apparent that Rule 4 of the Rules only deals with manner of voting only. However, Rule 5 of the Rules deals with conduct of elections. Rule 5(1) of the Rules is only applicable to a situation when there is only one post of the President or the Vice President as the case may be. It is admitted position between the parties that there are two offices of the Vice President in Municipal Council, Ferozepur. Therefore, Rule 5(1) of the Rules has no applicability and accordingly the situation is governed by the provisions of Rule 5(2) of the Rules. Rule 5(2) of the Rules provides that in case there are two offices of Vice President of Municipality and both such offices are to be filled, then the voting is required to take place at same election for both the offices and each member of the Municipal Council is entitled to record only one vote. A candidate obtaining the largest number of votes is to be elected as Senior Vice President, whereas the candidate obtaining the second largest number of votes is to be declared as elected Junior Vice President. From the perusal of the agenda Annexure P.4, it is apparent that the aforesaid procedure had not been followed. We may also notice at this stage even the elections which the petitioners claim to have conducted at some secret place, also does not adhere to Rule 5(2) of the Rules. In these circumstances, both the aforesaid elections are liable to be set aside. Therefore, elections are required to be held afresh. 10. Accordingly, we allow the present petition and quash the Resolution dated February 10, 2005 through which respondents No. 7 and 8 have been elected as Senior Vice President and Junior Vice President, respectively, and direct the Municipal Council, Ferozepur to hold fresh elections to the aforesaid two posts in accordance with law. Fresh elections to the aforesaid two post shall be held within a period of six weeks from today and shall be held in the presence of the, Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur.
Copy of the order be given dasti on payment of usual charges.
