Hon’ble Dr. B.S. Chauhan, J.—This petition involves a substantial question of law as to whether after declaration of the result by the Returning Officer and issuance of the certificate of declaration in favour of a successful candidate, the Returning Officer has the competence to order for recount of the votes or issue a certificate in favour of any other candidate on the ground that certain votes had not been counted before the declaration of the result.

2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this case are that the petitioner was a candidate for the post of member of Block Development Committee (hereinafter called the ‘B.D.C.O for Kshetra Panchayat Swar, District Rampur. The election was held on 23.10.2005 and after the counting of votes, it was found that the petitioner secured 378 votes while the respondent No. 3 Smt. Surja secured only 337 votes and another candidate Geeta could secure only 24 votes. On the basis of this counting, the Returning Officer, respondent No. 2 declared the petitioner successful, and the certificate to that effect dated 26.10.2005 (Annex. 1) as required under the Rules was also issued to her. The Returning officer, subsequent thereto, dec