Santosh And Ors vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors

This writ petition has been filed by the petitioners aggrieved against the order dated 13/1/2020 passed by the District Collector, Nagaur, whereby, the appeal filed by the petitioners has been rejected.

It is inter alia indicated in the writ petition that names of the petitioners were earlier registered in the electoral roll of Municipal Board, Kuchera, however, it is claimed that they shifted their residence to village Bodwa and ration card in this regard has been got issued in their favour.

Further submissions have been made that petitioners, after getting deleted their names from the electoral roll of Municipal Board, Kuchera, have applied for registration of their names in electoral rolls of village Bodwa. Tehsildar, Mundawa ordered for inquiry about the residence of the petitioners and in pursuance thereto a report was submitted by the Executive Officer of the Municipal Board, Kuchera that the residence of three petitioners was at Kuchera.

The petitioner approached this Court by filing SBCWP No. 479/2020, which came to be decided by order dated 9/1/2020, whereby, the Chief Electoral Officer/District Collector was directed to decide the representation to be made by the petitioners.

The District Collector by his impugned order dated 13/1/2020 came to the conclusion that the petitioners have relied on the ration card, which belonged to Gram Bodwa, Panchayat Samiti, Mundawa and online copies of ration cards were produced, wherein, the residence of petitioners was indicated as 'Holi Nimda ke Pass', which fact has been fortified by the report of Executive Officer, Municipal Board, Kuchera.

Further, the Collector came to the conclusion that the petitioners have not applied for deletion of their names from the electoral roll of Municipal Board, Kuchera and consequently he came to the conclusion that the name of one person cannot be entered in two local councils and that a person can have only one ration card and that the petitioners were not ordinary residents of Gram Panchayat, Bodwa and only with a view to contest election, an attempt was made to get the names entered in electoral roll, which is not justified and consequently rejected the application.

Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the action of the respondents in rejecting the application filed by the petitioners is baseless and against the settled position, wherein, once the petitioners have established their ordinary residence at village Bodwa, there was no occasion for the Collector to reject the application filed by the petitioners.

Submissions have been made that the finding regarding the petitioners not getting their names deleted from the electoral rolls of Municipal Board, Kuchera is of no consequence inasmuch as the petitioners have got their names deleted from the electoral rolls, which is fortified from Annex.2 and, therefore, the petition deserves to be allowed.

Learned Addl. Advocate General vehemently opposed the submissions. It was submitted with reference to material produced along with reply that the ration card of the petitioners pertain to Kuchera and in the electoral roll of Khinvsar. The names of petitioners appear in the electoral roll of Kuchera and, therefore, the plea raised in this regard is wholly baseless and the order was rightly passed by the Collector, which does not call for any interference.

I have considered the submissions made by learned counsel for the parties and have perused the material available on record.

The sheet anchor of petitioners is the surrender of ration card vide Annex.1, which action, apparently, has been taken by the petitioners on 17/1/2020 and the application filed for deletion of their names from electoral rolls of Kuchera, wherein, the receipt indicates the names of petitioners in 'Hkkx la+- 203 dz- la- 1136 & 1141' and a certificate purportedly issued by one Balbir Mirdha, BLO, regarding deletion of names of petitioners from the electoral roll of Municipal Board, Kuchera.

The documents produced by the petitioners are telltale inasmuch as the ration card has been got cancelled on 17/1/2020 after the order impugned was passed by the Collector on 13/1/2020. The application for deletion also pertain to 'Hkkx la- 203' which only refers to electoral roll of assembly constituency filed as Annex.R/2. The certificate of BLO is not even worth the value of paper on which it is written, inasmuch as no reference/context has been indicated and the BLO apparently is not the authority, who could order for deletion of names from the electoral rolls.

Consequently, the order passed by the District Collector rejecting the claim of the petitioners for entering of their names in the electoral rolls of village Bodwa is wholly justified and the same does not call for any interference.

In view of the above, there is no substance in the writ petition and the same is, therefore, dismissed.