JUDGMENT :

1. Heard.

2. Leave granted to withdraw the Writ Petition to the extent of petitioner Nos. 10 and 11.

3. Rule. The Rule is made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, the matter is heard finally at the stage of admission.

4. The petitioners who had filed nomination from different wards of village Balsur, Taluka Omarga, District Osmanabad, are before this Court being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the decision of the Returning Officer rejecting the nomination forms primarily on the ground that the declaration in Annexure II did not bear their signatures either below the declaration or under the verification statement which was also not duly sworn before the Notary.

5. Learned Advocate Mr. Thombre would submit that going by the provisions of Rule 11 (2-A) of the Maharashtra Village Panchayat Election Rules, the defect being minor, the returning officer should have allowed the petitioners to cure it. He would submit that the petitioners were present before the Returning Officer and even tried to tender the documents to cure the defect. But he deliberately received those late. The decision is politically motivated. The whole purpose of the election would be frustrat