Anita vs Bharti And Ors

There is delay of five days in filing of the appeal. Application No. 41/2019 has been filed by the appellant under Section 5 of the Limitation Act seeking condonation of delay in filing of the appeal.

For the reasons mentioned in the application, the application and delay in filing of the appeal is condoned.

This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 26.09.2018 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court whereby writ petition filed by Respondent No. 1-writ petitioner, Bharti was allowed and order dated 15.10.2016 passed by the Court of Senior Civil Judge, Laxmangarh, Alwar (for short 'the Election Tribunal') was set aside. By the aforesaid order dated 15.10.2016, the Election Tribunal dismissed the election petition filed by Respondent No.1-writ petitioner in view of an application filed by the appellant herein under Order 7 Rule 11 CPC holding that the election petition was filed beyond the statutory period of limitation of 30 days. Learned Single Judge taking note of the fact that result of election for the post of Sarpanch was declared on 18.01.2015 and Respondent No. 1, Bharti filed election petition challenging the aforesaid election under Section 43 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (for short 'the Act of 1994') read with Rule 80 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Election) Rules, 1994 (for short 'the Rules of 1994') in the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Alwar on 18.02.2015 and 17.02.2015 was a public holiday on account of Maha Shivratri, therefore, the same was within limitation. Learned Single Judge has concurred with the view taken by another Single Bench of this Court in Mojiram Meena Vs. Mukesh Kumar Meena & Others (S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 4682/2017 decided on 25.04.2017) wherein the judgment of the Supreme Court in K. Venkateswara Rao & Another Vs. Bekkam Narasimha Reddi & Others, AIR 1969 (SC) 872 was also relied upon wherein it was held that even though the Limitation Act, 1963 does not apply to election petitions under the Representation of People Act, 1951, which is a complete and self contained code and has its special limitation provisions Section 9 and 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 providing for computation of time would apply to such petitions. Section 10 and 11 of the Rajasthan General Clauses Act, 1955 (for short 'the Act of 1955') are the provisions pari materia to Section 9 and 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. Rule 80 of the Rules of 1994 provides that an election petition be filed within 30 days from the date of declaration of result. The word "from" in the said rule would require because of Section 10 of the Act of 1955 exclusion of the date of the declaration of result of the election to the post of Sarpanch while computing 30 days for filing the election petition. So, excluding 18.01.2015, the date on which the result of election was declared cannot be reckoned for while computing 30 days of limitation. The date on which the limitation was expiring happened to be the date of public holiday for the reason of "Maha Shivratri". Thus, the limitation for filing election petition by virtue of Section 11 of the Act of 1955 would extend to the next date, i.e. 18.02.2015.

We have heard learned counsel for the parties at length and gone through the judgment passed by the learned Single Bench including judgment of another Single Bench of this Court in Mojiram Meena (supra) as also the judgment of the Supreme Court in K. Venkateswara Rao & Another (supra) and we do not find any infirmity in the judgment passed by the learned Single Judge. There is no merit in this appeal and the same is accordingly dismissed.

Stay Application No. 304/2019 also stands dismissed.