( 1 ) THE petitioner and the second respondent were candidates for the Office of Pradhan of Gaon sabha Bahua, in Tahsil Fatehpur, at an election held on the 37th December 1955, under the provisions of the U. P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (herein referred to as the Act ). The petitioner was declared elected. Thereupon the second respondent filed an election petition challenging the validity of the former election. The petition was filed before the Sub-Divisional Officer, fatehpur.

( 2 ) ON the 1st March 1956, during the pendency of that petition, the State Government sent a demi-official letter No. A-414/2/a-1956 to all District Magistrates. That letter read as follows:

i am directed to say that reports received by Government indicate that a considerable number of election petitions arising out of the recent elections to Gaon Panchayats have been filed in the courts of Sub-Divisional Officers concerned. It is imperative both from the point of view of efficiency and administrative desirability that sooner these petitions are disposed of the better. It is felt that with their other miscellaneous executive duties S. D. Os. do not get sufficient time to devote to these petition