Back
High Court Of Gujarat
V.M.Sahai, G.B.Shah J.
Kuber Bhandareshwar Group Kheti Piyat Sahkari Mandli Ltd. -Appellant
Versus
Authorised Officer And Co-Operative Officer Attached To Market -Respondent
Special Civil Application No. 9127 of 2011
Decided On : Aug 08, 2011
Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1963 - Section 11(1)(i) - Gujarat Agricultural Produce Markets Rules, 1965 - Rules 5, 7 and 8(1-A) - Election - Challenged order passed by Authorised Officer respondent No.1 has removed names of petitioners Societies from final voters' list of Agriculturists constituency in election of Agriculture Produce Market Committee - Held, Objections were rejected by Authorised Officer, then after publication of provisional voters' list, respondent could not again challenge inclusion of petitioners' name in provisional voters' list - Authorised Officer cannot delete names of such voters from the provisional list once objections against their inclusion in the preliminary list are rejected - As per Rule 8(1-A) can be exercised by Authorised Officer can only entertain objection against a new name in the voters' list - Not open for Authorised Officer to delete an existing name in a provisional list as such it is not a new name which could be deleted - Deletion of petitioners Societies names from final list of voters without any authority of law and order passed by Authorised Officer was completely destructive of democratic process and fraud on elections - Impugned order passed by Authorised Officer quashed - Petition allowed.
V. M. SAHAI, J.
( 1. ) THE petitioners in this writ petition are the societies which are registered under the provisions of the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act'). THE petitioners are functioning as per the bye-laws of the Societies in the interest of their members. THE date of registration of the petitioner Nos. 1 to 5 Societies by the Competent Authority are 23-2-2009, 23-7-2009, 23-7-2009, 23-7-2009 and 19-2-2009 respectively. In this petition, the petitioners have challenged the common order dated 17-7-2011 passed by the Authorised Officer, the respondent No. 1 by which the respondent No. 1 has removed the names of the petitioners- societies from the final voters' list of the Agriculturists constituency in the election of Agriculture Produce Market Committee, Naswadi.
( 2. ) THE Director of Agricultural Marketing and Rural Finance fixed the following programme for elections to the A.P.M.C., Naswadi :
1. THE date for declaration of election programme 31-5-2011
2. THE date for instruction by Authorised Officer for preparation of voters' list. 31-5-2011
3. THE date for the A.P.M.C. to send the list of voters to the Authorised Officer. 7-6-2011
4. THE date for publication of the preliminary list of voters. 14-6-2011
5. THE last date of receiving objections against the above list. 28-6-2011
6. THE date for publication of provisional voters' list or the revised draft voters' list. 5-7-2011
7. THE last date for submitting objections against the above list. 12-7-2011
8. THE last date for publication of the final list of voters. 17-7-2011
9. THE date for filing nomination forms. 16-8-2011
10. THE date for publication of nomination forms. 16-8-2011
11. THE date of scrutiny of nomination forms. 17-8-2011
12. THE date for withdrawal of nomination forms. 20-8-2011
13. THE date for publication of final list of candidates. 20-8-2011
14. THE date of polling. 31-8-2011
15. THE date of counting. 1-9-2011
2.1. THE Authorised Officer published the preliminary voters' list on 14-6-2011 which included the names of the committee members of the petitioner-Societies and their names find place at Serial Nos. 162-172, 184-194, 195-205, 173-183 and 151-161 respectively. THE respondent No. 2-Somabhai Gokalbhai filed common objections on 27-6-2011 against inclusion of the names of the petitioner-Societies (for short 'the petitioners') in the preliminary voters' list. THE Authorised Officer issued notice to the petitioners on 26-8-2011. THE petitioners filed their replies on 4-7-2011 to foe effect that the petitioners are dispensing agricultural credit to their members and are functioning as per the Bye-laws of the Societies in the . interest of their members. THE Authorised Officer considered the objections of respondent No. 2 and replies of the petitioners and by order dated 5-7-2011 rejected the objections filed by respondent No. 2-Somabhai Gokalbhai and published on the same day the provisional voters' list.
2.2. After publication of the provisional voters' list on 5-7-2011, again the respondent No. 2-Somabhai Gokalbhai filed similar objection on 12- 7-2011 which had earlier been decided by the Authorised Officer. On this objection, the Authorised Officer issued notice to the petitioners on 13- 7-2011 and the petitioners submitted their replies on 15-7-2011. THE Authorised Officer by his common order dated 17-7-2011 allowed the objection raised by respondent No. 2-Somabhai Gokalbhai and the name of the petitioner-Societies were removed from the final voters' list published on 17-7-2011.
2.3. THE respondent No. 1 - the Authorised Officer and Co-operative Officer (Marketing) to District Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Vadodara has filed his affidavit-in-reply stating therein that the petitioners were not dispensing genuine agricultural credit, and therefore, their names were rightly deleted from the final voters' list as dispensing agricultural credit by the petitioners were not as per the prescribed source of creating funds of the
An indispensable Tool for Legal Professionals, Endorsed by Various High Court and Judicial Officers
Please visit our Training & Support
Center or Contact Us for assistance
Scan Me!
India’s Legal research and Law Firm App, Download now!
For Daily Legal Updates, Join us on :
Back to top
