1. By virtue of order dated 20-12-2006 contained in Annexure-4, the State Election Commissioner, while exercising power under Section 135(1) of the Bihar Panchayat Raj Act, 2006 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) has disqualified the petitioner from the post of Mukhiya, Ballour Gram Panchayat in the District of Darbhanga on the ground that the petitioner was a Nepali citizen and therefore, is not entitled to occupy the elected office under question. Petitioner wants the impugned order, therefore, to be set aside in the present writ application.

2. A complaint was filed by one Shri. Sunil Kumar Jha of Ballour Village on the ground that Shri. Narendra Narayan Das, the petitioner in the present writ application by making a false declaration had contested the election to the post of Mukhiya, even though, he is a resident of House No. 55 D.S.P. Road, Ward No. 3 of Viratnagar, Nepal and is a Nepalese citizen having citizenship No. 1177/031/32. Based on the said complaint, case No. 47/2006 was instituted by the State Election Commission. After notice to the concerned parties, the matter finally came to be adjudicated upon vide order dated 20-10-2006. The Election Commission after perusing various evidence including evidence which was supplied by the Nepalese authorities came to a conclusion that the petitioner was a Nepalese Citizen and therefore disqualified to hold the post of Mukhiya. He was accordingly ordered to be removed.

3. First contention of learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner is that it is open to the State Election Commission to disqualify a person from the elected office unless a proper adjudication with regard to the citizenship of a person is made by the competent authority under the Citizenship Act. This power according to him only vested in the Central Government and the same cannot be exercised by the State Election Commission, even though, the power had been vested under Section 136 of the Act.

4. The second contention of learned Senior Counsel is that as per Section 136(1)(a) of the Act the Election Commission could only adjudicate and decide whether the person is a citizen of India. It is not for the Election Commission to adjudicate whether a person is a citizen of yet another country. According to him strict rule of interpretation should be adopted in reading such provision of law as has been held by the Hon ble Supreme Court in the case of Arun Singh V/s. The State of Bihar, (2006) 9 SCC 375 : (AIR 2006 SC 1413).

5. The third contention of the petitioner is that he had not acquired the citizenship of Nepal but the same was conferred upon him by descent it was not a voluntary acquisition on his part, in fact, there is sufficiency of material to show that he is an Indian citizen resident of the village and by virtue of the same he cannot incur disqualification, Learned counsel for the petitioner has also brought on record the Nepal Citizenship Act, 2006 and he brings to my notice Section 10(1V) to show that by virtue of the said provision he is not a Nepalese citizen since there is nothing to show that the petitioner had acquired citizenship of Nepal after attaining 16 years of age. Section 10 of the Nepal Citizenship Act is reproduced hereinbelow for ready reference :

10. Termination of Nepalese Citizenship: (i) Any citizen of Nepal who voluntarily acquires the citizenship of any foreign country shall automatically lose the citizenship of Nepal.

(ii) The designated authority shall register the notice submitted by a citizen of Nepal, who notifies in the prescribed form of renunciation of the Citizenship of Nepal and the citizenship of that person shall be terminated from the date such notice has been duly registered.

(iii) Any person who has been divested by Nepalese citizenship pursuant to Clause 14, shall be deemed to have lost his citizenship from that date.

(iv) If any person who is in a status of acquiring the citizenship of Nepal and a foreign country concurrently, such p