Alok Sharma, J.

Heard the counsel for the petitioner-returned candidate (for short 'RC') and the respondent - election petitioner (for short 'EP') and perused the impugned judgment dated 9.6.2017 passed by the District Judge, Jhunjhunu allowing the EP's election petition filed under Section 43 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (for short, 'the Act of 1994') read with Rule 80 of the Rajasthan Panchayat (Election) Rules, 1994 (for short, 'the Rules of 1994') Counsel for the RC fairly admits that at the time of filing nomination form for elections to the post of Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat, Khandwa, Panchayat Samiti, Buhana, District Jhunjhunu, the RC had submitted a certificate of Class-X from the National Institute of Open Schooling, New Delhi. He submits that the said certificate not being authenticated by the institute, it rightly was not taken by the trial court as reflective of the RC's minimum educational qualification as required under Section 19 (t) of the Act of 1994.

2. Mr. R.P. Singh, however, emphatically submitted that the RC had also passed Class-VIII from Vidhyashram Sr. Secondary Public School, Khetri, District Jhunjhunu. It was submitted that the RC thus