Manish Pitale, J.

The petitioner herein, who was elected directly as a Sarpanch as also a Member of Ward No.1 of Gram Panchayat Indira Nagar, tahsil Pusad, district Yavatmal, has challenged order dated 23.01.2018 passed by the respondent no.1 - Additional Collector, whereby it has been held that the petitioner stands disqualified from both the posts by operation of Section 13A of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Act, 1959, (for short "Act") as he failed to resign from either of the posts within the stipulated period of seven days from the date of declaration of result of election.

2. The facts leading up to filing of the present writ petition are that the elections were held for the said Gram Panchayat wherein the petitioner contested for the post of Member of the Gram Panchayat from Ward No.1 and also for the post of Sarpanch, who after the amendment of 2017 in the aforesaid Act, was to be elected directly by the voters. The petitioner was elected both as a Sarpanch and also as Member from Ward No.1. The result of the election was declared on 09.10.2017 and it was published by the respondent no.2 on the Gram Panchyat notice board on 11.10.2017. According to the petitioner, on 16.10.2017 he submitted a letter to the respondent no.3-Tahsildar, also the Returning Officer, resigning from the post of Member of Ward No.1.

3. But, on 06.11.2017 a complaint was submitted against the petitioner before the respondent no.3, stating that resignation was not submitted by the petitioner within the stipulated time period of seven days and that, therefore, he stood disqualified under Section 13A of the aforesaid Act. The said provision mandates that a person elected to more than one seat in a Village Panchayat shall resign from all but one of the seats within the prescribed period and if he/she failed to do so, all the seats occupied by such person would be rendered vacant. On the said complaint, the respondent no.3 sent a proposal to respondent no.2, recommending disqualification of the petitioner, on the ground that the letter of resignation was received in the office of the respondent no.3 on 31.10.2017. It was submitted that since the said letter of resignation was beyond the prescribed period under Section 13A of the aforesaid Act read with Rule 41A of the Maharashtra Village Panchayats Rules, 1959, the petitioner was liable to be disqualified.

4. On this basis, notice was issued by the respondent no.2 to the petitioner. In reply to the said notice, it was contended on behalf of the petitioner that Section 13A of the aforesaid Act did not apply to the petitioner after the 2017 amendment of the Act, whereby Sarpanch was directly elected on the post. It was further contended that resignation letter was in fact submitted on 16.10.2017, which was within the stipulated period and that due to clerical mistake and administrative issues, the correct date of submission of the resignation letter was not reflected in the record. On this basis, the petitioner asserted that he could not be disqualified under Section 13A of the aforesaid Act.

5. By the impugned order dated 23.01.2018, the Additional Collector rejected both the contentions which were raised on behalf of the petitioner. It was held that Section 13A of the aforesaid Act applied even after the 2017 amendment of the aforesaid Act and that the petitioner had not been able to show that he had submitted letter of resignation from the post of Member from Ward No.1 within the stipulated period of seven days. It was noted that the petitioner had claimed that the delay in submitting resignation had occurred due to ill-health and that he had also sought to be forgiven for the mistake on his part. It is this order of the respondent no.2 that has been made subject matter of challenge in the present writ petition.

6. Mr. V.N. Patre, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner made twofold submissions, firstly that Section 13A of the aforesaid Act did not apply to the petitioner because it con