Mr. Hemant Gupta, J.:- The matter has been placed before this Bench in pursuance of an order passed made by this Court on 21.05.2015 wherein the Bench expressed reservation with the view of Division Bench in Shimla Rani v. State of Punjab, 2008(3) RCR (Civil) 138 wherein, it was held that the remedy of the election petition is not available to an aggrieved person in respect of elections to the post of office bearers of a Municipality/Panchayat.

2. The petitioners are the elected Councillors of Municipal Corporation, Moga in an election conducted on 22.02.2015. The grievance of the petitioners is in respect of election to the office bearers of the Municipal Corporation such as to the post of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor held on 09.03.2015. The grievance of the petitioners is that the election was not conducted in a fair manner when Mr. Akshit Jain was elected as Mayor, Mr. Anil Bansal as Senior Deputy Mayor and Mr. Jarnail Singh as Deputy Mayor. It was alleged that election has been conducted under the pressure of the ruling party and sitting MLA of the area.

3. The challenge of the petitioners to the post of office bearers was also on the ground that election by ‘show of hands’ is not tenable as it defeats the right of secrecy of vote, but such contention was rejected by the Bench on 21.05.2015 relying upon an order passed in CWP No.4151 of 2015 titled Kuljeet Singh Bedi v. State of Punjab and others, [2015(3) Law Herald (P&H) 2082 (DB) : 2015 LawHerald.Org 998] decided on 24.03.2015. Therefore, the question which survives for consideration is whether the election for the post of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor could be agitated before this Court in a writ petition or only through election petition.

4. In Shimla Rani’s case (supra), a Division Bench of this Court has taken a view that election petition is not maintainable in respect of elections to the post of office bearers of the Municipalities and Panchayats. It is the said view with which, the Division Bench expressed reservation and the matter is placed before us.

5. A brief legislative history of the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (for short ‘Corporation Act’) as amended by the Punjab Act No.12 of 1994 consequent to the insertion of Part IXA in the Constitution would be necessary to appreciate the arguments raised. Firstly, the provisions from Part IX-A of the Constitution as are relevant for the present petition read as under:-

“243R. Composition of Municipalities.- (1) Save as provided in clause ( 2 ), all the seats in a Municipality shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from the territorial constituencies in the Municipal area and for this purpose each Municipal area shall be divided into territorial constituencies to be known as wards.

(2) The Legislature of a State may, by law, provide-

(a) for the representation in a Municipality of -

(i) persons having special knowledge or experience in Municipal administration;

(ii) the members of the House of the People and the members of the Legislative Assembly of the State representing constituencies which comprise wholly or partly the Municipal area;

(iii) the members of the Council of States and the members of the Legislative Council of the State registered electors within tile Municipal area;

(iv) the Chairpersons of the Committees constituted under clause ( 5 ) of article 243S:

Provided that the persons referred to in paragraph (i) shall not have the right to vote in the meetings of the Municipality;

(b) the manner of election of the Chairperson of a Municipality. 243T. Reservation of seats.—(1) Seats shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipality and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that Municipality as the population of the Scheduled Castes in the Municipal area or of the Scheduled Tribes