B. SUBHASHAN REDDY, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner in the instant writ petition prays for issuance of a writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the State Election Commission in issuing a fresh notification dt. 9-8-2001 notifying the election programme for conduct of election to the office of Sarpanch of Tandra Gram Panchayat of Veldanda Mandal of Mahabubnagar District as illegal and void. The petitioner accordingly prays for an appropriate direction to declare the petitioner as duly elected Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Tandra.

( 2 ) BEFORE adverting to the question as to whether the impugned notification suffers from any legal infirmity, it may be necessary to briefly notice the relevant facts.

( 3 ) THE first respondent herein issued notification dt. 30-7-2001 proposing to hold the elections throughout the State of Andhra Pradesh to the Panchayat Raj institutions and accordingly issued the election programme for conduct of elections to the office of Sarpanch and Ward Members for Tandra Gram Panchayat also. The last date for filing of nominations was 4-8-2001. Several candidates filed their nominations seeking to the office of the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat in question. The Election Officer found five nominations to be valid. The last date for withdrawal of nominations was 8-8-2001. Out of the said five candidates, have withdrawn their candidature on 8-8-2001 and accordingly submitted the proposal for withdrawal of their candidature to the Election Officer. The Election Officer accepted the same. The petitioner alone remained as the contesting candidate.

( 4 ) THE Election Officer accordingly published list of contesting candidates as per Rule 11 (1) of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Conduct Elections of Members and Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Members of Mandal Parishad and Members of Zilla Parishad) Rules, 1994 (for shortthe Rule ) in Form No.-8. The name of the petitioner alone was shown as the contesting candidate.

( 5 ) THAT immediately after such publication of the names of the contesting candidates, one person by name K. Prabhakar Reddy entered the office where the election process was going on and poured kerosene on papers and snatched away the nomination forms filed by the candidates seeking election to the office of the Ward members as well as the Sarpanch of three Gram Panchayats, namely , Tandra, Pothepalli and Kotra. It appears there is only one Election Officer for all the three Gram Panchayats. The Election Officer lodged a complaint in Veldanda Police Station to take necessary action against the said individual. The Election Officer accordingly reported about the incident to M. P. D. O. Veldanda who in turn sent a FAX message to the Collector informing about the incident and sought for the instructions in the matter.

( 6 ) IT appears, the Collector and District Election Authority, Mahabubnagar sent a message dt. 9-8-2001 to the first respondent State Election Commission about the incident. The State Election Commission after taking the facts into consideration came to the conclusion that the process of election has been interrupted within the meaning of Rule 4-A of the Conduct of Election Rules and accordingly issued fresh notification re-notifying the election programme. The said decision is impugned in this writ petition.

( 7 ) SRI D. Jagan Mohan Reddy, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner contends that the impugned notification issued by the first respondent-State Election Commission in so far as the election to the office of the Sarpanch of Tandra Gram Panchayat concerned suffers from legal infirmity. The decision of the State election Commission, according to the learned counsel for the petitioner, is contrary to the conduct of Election Rues. It is submitted that the Election Officer ought to have declared the petitioner to have been duly elected as the Sarpanch, as there was only one validly nominated candidate to the office of the Sarpanch of the Gram panchayat.

( 8 ) IN the counter- affid

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