The electoral roll which is in force at the time of the notification by a District Magistrate calling upon the wards to elect Commissioners has to be used at the time of the polling, subject to the corrections of entries and inclusions of names in accordance with the note and the provisions of sections 22 and 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (Act XLIII of 1951).

Tarkeshwar Nath, J.

1. This application by seventeen persons - under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India is for a declaration that the election of the Municipal Commissioners of the Sitamarhi Municipality held on 12-6-1960 was void. The facts leading to this application are these. On 20-2-1959 the District Magistrate of Muzaffarpur called upon all the words of the Sitaniarhi Municipality to elect Commissioners on or before 15-7-1959. No step was taken for holding the election before that date and hence it was adjourned to 31-5-1960 by another notification dated 4-2-1960 issued by the same officer. The District Magistrate appointed the Sub-divisional Magistrate of Sitamarhi (respondent 27) as a returning officer by notification dated 8-3-1960 and the latter fixed 27-4-1960 as the last date for filing of the nomination paper, 28-4-1960 for scrutiny, 1-5-1960 for withdrawal and 29-5-1960 for the poll relating to the election of the Commissioners of the Sitamarhi Municipality. The date for polling was, however, postponed to 12-6-1960 and this alteration, it is alleged, was illegal for want of a proper notification. The result of the polling on 12-6-1960 was that respondents 1 to 24 were declared elected as Commissioners of the Sitamarhi Municipality. The petitioners further alleged that the electoral roll for the election of the said Commissioners was finally published on 9-5-1960 and that being so, the notification calling upon the constituency to elect Commissioners even before the final publication of the electoral roll was entirely illegal. In that state of affairs, they challenged the election of respondents 1 to 24. Their further grievance was that petitioners 15, 16 and 17 were voters at the time when the constituency was called upon to elect but their names were deleted from the electoral roll which was finally published. Petitioners 7 and 12 also made a grievance that as the electoral roll was not finally published, they could not be candidates. It appears that out of these 17 petitioners, petitioners 1 to 6, 8 to is and 13 and 14 alleged themselves to be the voters of this Municipality. It was alleged that Rajendra Prasad (respondent 14) was not a voter in the finally published electoral roll and as such his election as Municipal Commissioner from Ward No. 14 was illegal. The District Magistrate, Muzaffarpur, the ex-Sub-divisonal Officer, Sitamarhi and the present Sub-divisional Officer of Sitamarhi were impleaded as respondents 25, 26 and 27 respectively in this petition.

2. In answer to the said petition, Gagandeo Singh, an employee of respondent 15, filed a counter-affidavit to the effect that the wards in which the Sitamarhi Municipality was divided for holding Assembly electrons were identical with) the wards for holding Municipal election and that system was continuing since a very long time. The draft electoral roll was duly revised in the year 1959 and on the basis of that electoral roll, electors were called upon to hold election of the Municipal Commissioners of the Sitamarhi Municipality. The revision of the electoral roll in 1960 was in due course for holding all sorts of elections and the said roll was revised in accordance with the prescribed rules. He stated in paragraph 7 of his counter-affidavit that the entire Municipal election was held on the basis of the electoral roll in existence at the time of filing nominations. The Election Supervisor swore a counter-affidavit on behalf of respondents 25 to 27 and he made, out that the electoral roll of the Sitamarhi South, Assembly constituency was taken to be the basis for the Municipal election according to Rule 4 of the Bihar Municipal Elections and Election Petitions Rules, 1953, and hence the electoral roll finally published on 30-10-1959, after intensive revision was taken to be the roll for filing nomination papers as according to the election programme, the nomination papers were to be filed from 19-4-1960 to 27-4-1960. He further