Smt. Himani Sharma v. State of Rajasthan And Others
2020-01-15
ASHOK KUMAR GAUR
body2020
DigiLaw.ai
ORDER 1. The instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner for seeking a direction to include/add her name in the voter list of Ward No. 8, Village Lalpur, Gram Panchayat Lalpur, Tehsil Rajakheda, District Dholpur. The petitioner further seeks a direction for accepting her candidature for the purpose of election of Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat Lalpur. 2. Learned counsel submitted that the petitioner got married on 25 th January, 2019 and she settled in Village Lalpur, accordingly, her name was included in the voter list of Legislative Assembly by showing her name at Serial No.290 in the voter list. 3. Learned counsel submitted that the petitioner was entitled to be included in the voter list in the panchayat election and accordingly, when she approached BLO, Gram Panchayat Lalpur, the said officer reported to Electoral Registration Officer that name of the petitioner was wrongly not added and as such, her name was required to be added in the Ward No.8 in Village Lalpur. 4. Learned counsel submitted that omission, on the part of the authority, has resulted into depriving the petitioner from participating in the entire election process. 5. Learned counsel for the respondents Ms.Sheetal Mirdha, AAG has filed reply to the writ petition today and she has submitted that the petitioner was required to file an application under Form -I/Form - 3 in accordance with Rule 13 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Election) Rules, 1994 (for short "the Rules of 1994") and since the petitioner did not undertake the required exercise, thus her name cannot be included as desired in the petition. 6. Learned counsel also submitted that proposal by the concerned BLO was not in consonance with the prescribed format and as such, no illegality has been committed by the respondents by not including name of the petitioner. 7. Learned counsel further submitted that inclusion of name of the petitioner in electoral roll for assembly election does not ipso facto mean that name of the petitioner should be included in the panchayat electoral roll. 8. Learned counsel further submitted that preparation of electoral roll for Panchayat Election, 2020 was taken on 01.01.2019, which was prior to the date when the petitioner's name was included in Vidhansabha Electoral Roll. 9.
8. Learned counsel further submitted that preparation of electoral roll for Panchayat Election, 2020 was taken on 01.01.2019, which was prior to the date when the petitioner's name was included in Vidhansabha Electoral Roll. 9. Learned counsel for the respondents also submitted that correction in the draft roll was sought by 13.12.2019 and the petitioner did not file any such application before the cut off date. 10. I have considered the submissions made by learned counsel for the parties and perused the record of the case. 11. This Court finds that admittedly the petitioner had not filed any application under Form - 1 in accordance with Rule 13 of the Rules of 1994 for inclusion of her name. 12. This Court further finds that if the petitioner had any grievance against non-inclusion of her name, she ought to have immediately taken corrective action, as per the procedure, which was prescribed while seeking objections from the aggrieved persons, due to non-inclusion of their names. 13. This Court finds substance in the submission made by learned counsel for the respondents that the so-called recommendation of BLO will not result into automatic inclusion of name of the petitioner and the Electoral Registration Officer will not be able to proceed in the matter until required Form under Rule 13 of the Rules of 1994 is filed by any person. 14. This Court finds that inclusion of name of the petitioner in Vidhansabha Electoral Roll will not automatically result into inclusion of her name for the purpose of panchayat elections. 15. Accordingly, this Court does not find any error in any of the actions of the respondents and as such, the prayer of the petitioner cannot be accepted to include her name. 16. At this juncture, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that at least, liberty may be granted to the petitioner to seek inclusion of her name in the voter list of panchayat election in future. 17. This Court finds that if the petitioner is eligible to be included and if she has requisite documents for inclusion of her name, she is always free to file such documents as and when such exercise is undertaken by the respondents for inclusion of name in electoral roll in future. 18. With the aforesaid, the present writ petition stands disposed of.