Rekha Devi vs The State of Bihar and Others

Navaniti Prasad Singh, J.—Heard Mr. Sharma, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner. He appears for a candidate who had lost by six votes and, as such, filed an election petition which has been dismissed. His only ground for challenging the election of respondent No. 6 is that 28 persons had voted in favour of respondent No. 6, the winning candidate and they were in the electoral rolls of two different Gram Panchayats. He submits that they could not have voted in both the Gram Panchayats. The Election Tribunal has dismissed the election petition on the ground that whether they had voted at all or not has not been established.

In my view, even if what Mr. Sharma, learned Senior Counsel submits is accepted that those 28 persons had voted in favour of respondent No. 6 and were enrolled in two different Gram Panchayats that, in my view, would make little difference. This Court has earlier held in several judgments that each Gram Panchayat is a separate independent unit of local self Government. It has also been held that if in one Gram Panchayat, a person figures in two wards that would disqualify him at least in one because in the same election process for the same local self Government, a person can exercise his vote only once. That is not the case here. The election process is too different for two different Governments.

That being so, I find no merit in this application. It is, accordingly, dismissed.