ORDER

17.08.2005 On the consent of the parties, the matter is taken up for final disposal at the stage of admission.

Heard.

Petitioner was elected to the office of Sarpanch, Hatibandha Grama Panchayat under Sinapalli Police Station in the district of Nuapada in the election held in the year 2002. Opp.party No.2, who was one of the defeated candidates in the said election challenged election of the petitioner by filing Election Petition bearing MJC No.8 of 2002 in the Court of learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Nuapada inter alia on the ground that peti¬tioner cannot read and write Oriya and was disqualified form contesting the election as provided under Section 11(b) of the Orissa Grama Panchayat Act, 1964 (hereinafter called ‘the Act’). Petitioner while denying to the allegation pleaded that she has read up to Class-III and is able to read and write Oriya.

During the enquiry, opp.party No.2 examined herself as the sole witness and did not produce any document. Petitioner examined two witnesses including herself and produced the School Leaving Certificate, the entry of School Admission Register, entries of the Result Register of 1975 and 1974 which were marked as Exts. ‘A’ to ‘D’ respectively. Learned Civil Judge (Junior division), Nuapada after considering the evidence of the parties, by his order dated 20th March, 2003, Annexure-2, declared the election of the petitioner as void. Petitioner challenged that order in Misc. Judicial Appeal No.4 of 2003 in the Court of Addl. District Judge, Nuapada. The appellate Court dismissed the appeal and confirmed the order of the lower Court by the impugned judg¬ment dated 17.5.2003, Annexure-3 and as against that petitioner has filed the present Writ Petition with the prayer to quash the orders Annexures-2 & 3.

Grievance of the petitioner is that when she has produced Exts. A to D in support of her educational qualification, there was no scope for the Courts below to disbelieve her ability to read and write Oriya script and to ask the petitioner to read and write Oriya script in the witness box or to utilize the result of such test as conclusive proof of inability of the petitioner to read and write Oriya.

Learned counsel for opp.party No.2 on the other hand submits that Section 11(b) of the Act does not speak of educational qualification, but the ability of a candidate to read and write Oriya. According to him, when the petitioner was unable to read and write Oriya script in the Court, the documents regarding her educational qualification were of no consequence and so, the Courts below were justified in declaring the election of the petitioner invalid.

In the above context it is appropriate to quote the relevant provision of Section-11.

“11. Qualification for membership in the Grama Panchayat-Notwithstanding anything in Section 10 no member of a Grama Sasan shall be eligible to stand for election-

(a) xx xx xx

(b) as a Sarpanch or Naib-Sarpanch, if he has not attained the age of twenty-one years or is unable to read and write Oriya;”

A plain reading of Section 11(b) would thus show that a candidate would stand disqualified if he /she is unable to read and write Oriya. This provision does not speak and about educational qualification of a candidate. The provision thus signifies that a person having no academic educational qualifica¬tion is eligible to stand for election of the Grama Panchayat, if he is able to read and write Oriya. In other words, even if a person has educational qualification, but is unable to read and write Oriya, he would not be eligible to stand for election.

Documents-Exts. A to D no doubt show that petitioner pursued her study in Bargaon Primary School up to Class-III, but when she was tested in the Court during her cross-examination she was unable to read and write Oriya. In paragraph-7 of her evidence, petitioner admitted that she could not read the Oriya script which was shown to here in Court and also could not write the name Truptimayee Meher when she was