1. The petitioner has filed the present writ petition for a writ of certiorari to quash the impugned order passed by the learned Senior Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class, Kollegala dated 23.02.2018 made in Election Petition No.2/2017 allowing the application filed by the 5th respondent seeking for condonation of delay under Section 5 read with Section 14 of the Limitation Act and consequently, reject the Election Petition No.2/2017 thereby, declaring that the Limitation Act has no application to the Election Petition.

2. It is the case of the petitioner that on 04.12.2015, the State Government issued notification to hold elections to various Zilla Panchayat constituencies in the State of Karnataka. By Karnataka Act No.44 of 2015, the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 has been amended in which certain provisions have been amended and incorporated and it has been called as Karnataka Grama Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act (for short ‘the Act’).

3. For the purpose of trial of Election Petition, the designated Court has been incorporated and the said designated Court has jurisdiction to adjudicate the Election Petition which came into force on 31.12.2015. As on that date,