1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the learned Counsel appearing for the parties, these Writ Petitions are being disposed of finally by this common Judgment.

2. The petitioner in both Writ Petitions, namely, Sunil Sapadu Mahajan, is admittedly Municipal councillor of Jalgaon Municipal Corporation, Jalgaon(Henceforth referred to as “the Corporation”). Respondent No.1 in both these Petitions is one Manoj Dayaram Choudhari, who is also a Municipal councillor. Both got elected in Corporation Election, which was held on 31st August, 2008. It is common ground that, respondent No.1 was official candidate of a political party by name “Shivsena” for this election and got elected as Official Candidate of Shivsena party.

3. Soon after election, respondent No.1 made declaration to the effect that he belongs to Shivsena Party and filled Form No.4 to that effect. He was the only candidate belonging to Shivsena Party, who was elected. Respondent No.1, then formed “Municipal Party” of Shivsena of which he was the only member.

4. In this election, several candidates of Nationalist Congress Party, a political party, got elected. They too formed a “Municipal Party” of NCP. They elected one Ganesh as their leader in the Corporation.

5. Sometime, prior to 10th September, 2009, respondent No.1 made an application to the NCP Municipal Party and requested them to allow merger of Shivsena Municipal party with that of NCP. On 10th September, 2009, NCP Municipal Party allowed this request in a meeting. Accordingly on 17th September, 2009, the respondent No.1 conveyed the above mentioned information to the Divisional Commissioner. He requested the Divisional Commissioner to record this event as per section 5 of the Maharashtra Local Authority Members Disqualification Act (Hereinafter referred to as “the Act” for short). Similar information was also sent by the leader of the NCP Municipal party to the Divisional Commissioner and requested him to took note of merger of two Municipal Parties.

6. Soon thereafter on 22nd September, 2009, the petitioner moved petition under section 3 of the Act, seeking declaration of the disqualification of respondent No.1, as Councillor of the Corporation before the Divisional Commissioner, Nashik, who after perusal of the same, issued notice to respondent No.1.

7. Respondent No.1 appeared before the Divisional Commissioner on 06th October, 2009, and requested the Commissioner to adjourn the case, because along with notice a copy of petition and documents annexed to the petition were not received by him. Accordingly, his application for adjournment was allowed.

8. In the meantime, a little prior to 6th October, 2009 election for the state legislative assembly was announced and respondent No.1 filed his nomination for MLA Jalgaon City Constituency, as an independent candidate(although hitherto he belonged Sivsena). The election for such post was scheduled on 13th October, 2009.

9. On 6th October, 2009, the petitioner filed his second petition under section 3 of the Act, seeking disqualification of respondent No.1 on the ground that by filing nomination as an independent candidate he had defected from his original political party. Along with this petition amongst other documents, the petitioner also annexed copy of Form No.7A of assembly election, enumerating list of candidates contesting the said election. In this list, name of respondent No.1 appeared as independent candidate, having given election symbol of “Railway Engine”.

10. On 10th November, 2009, respondent No.1 made two applications in the first petition, and he requested that since second petition is now filed, the first petition filed against him should be dismissed. In the second application, he stated that, the petitioner did not comply with the requirements of the Rule 6 of Maharashtra Local Authority Members Disqualification Rules ( Hereinafter referred to as “the Rules” for short) and so petition should be dismissed.

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