O R D E R

Petitioner has filed this petition claiming the following relief:- “A. Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to declare votes invalid, which have been casted in favour of deceased candidate.

B. Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to declare null and void the result of counting of votes (Annexure P/4) to the extent of validating the votes casted in favour of deceased candidate.

C. Hon’ble court may kindly be pleased to direct the respondent Nos. 2 and 3 to grant certificate of Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Kanjera, Janpad Panchayat Deori, District Sagar (M.P.) to the petitioner under Rule 83 of the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Nirvachan Niyam, 1995.

D. Hon’ble Court may kindly be pleased to grant any other relief which Hon’ble Court may kindly deem fit and proper looking to the facts and circumstances of the case and including the cost of litigation.”

2. During the course of arguments learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that in view of the existing facts and circumstances of the case, as per Rule 46 of the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Nirvachan Niyam, 1995 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Nirvachan Niyam, 1995) there cannot be any cancellation of the election and the poll cannot be countermanded due to the death of a contesting candidate.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in an election of Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Conjera, Janpad Panchayat Deori, District Sagar, the petitioner secured total 257 votes, late Ravindra Singh secured 512 votes and the third candidate Vinod Singh secured 153 votes. He submits that since the candidate who secured maximum votes in the election died before commencement of polling, therefore poll cannot be countermanded and consequently the petitioner, who secured second highest votes, should he declared as a returned candidate.

4. As per the facts of the case, under the provisions of Nirvachan Niyam, 1995 a Notification was issued on 27th March, 2022 for general election in all Panchayats of the State. In pursuance to the said Notification, the petitioner submitted his nomination form in the prescribed format for the post of Sarpanch of Village Baheriya, Gram Panchayat Kanjera, Janpad Panchayat Deori, District Sagar. Apart from the petitioner, there were two other candidates namely Ravindra Singh and Vinod Singh. They also submitted their nomination form for the post of Sarpanch of the same Gram Panchayat. After completing all legal formalities and acceptance of nomination forms of all the candidates, the respondents allotted the symbols to all the candidates for the election scheduled on 10.06.2022. As per the list of the candidates contesting the election, the petitioner was placed at Sl. No.1, Ravindra Singh at Sl. No. 2 and Vinod Singh at Sl. No. 3 and their symbols of election were printed in front of their names. According to the programme of election, the polling from where the petitioner and other two candidates were contesting the election, was scheduled on 01.07.2022, but before commencement of polling one of the candidates namely Ravindra Singh died on 22.06.2022. However, even after the death of the said candidate, the respondents did not take any action to remove his name from the list of the contesting candidates. The polling was conducted as per the schedule on 01.07.2022 in Polling Booth No. 108 at Village Sasana and Polling Booth No. 109 at Village Kanjera. Since the name of the expired candidate was not removed from the list of the contesting candidate, the voters casted their votes in his favour also. As per the result of counting of votes at Polling Both No. 108 the petitioner secured 43 votes, Ravindra Singh (deceased) secured 291 and the third candidate Vinod Singh secured 120 votes and 01 vote was casted for NOTA and at Polling Booth No. 109, the petitioner secured 214 votes, Ravindra Singh (deceased) secured 221 votes and the third candidate Vinod Singh secured 33 votes and 01 vote was casted for NOTA. Thus in total the petitioner got total 257 votes, Ravindra Sin