MP high court pulls up collector for declaring defeated candidate a winner

The court observed that the bureaucrat did not act independently and the Election Commission should have taken action

The Madhya Pradesh high court on Thursday issued a notice to district collector of Panna for declaring the defeated candidate as vice president of Gunnaur Janpad panchayat and handing him over the winner’s certificate.

The single bench summoned him personally on August 17. (File image)

A single bench of judge Vivek Agrawal sought an explanation from the collector asking, “Why a recommendation is not made to not handover any sensitive matter like dealing with election petitions or conduct of elections in future and this recommendation be not forwarded to all the Constitutional Authorities like Election Commission of India or bodies like State Election Commission.”

In the petition filed by a resident of Panna Parmanand Sharma said, “I had filed nomination for the vice-president post of Janpad Panchayat Gunnaur. In the election held on July 27 for the post of vice-president, out of 25 elected members, 13 members voted in his favour and he won the election. He was also given the certificate of being elected as the Vice-President.”

“After the completion of the election process, all the members returned home. At 4:30pm, the defeated candidate Ramshiromani filed an election petition under section 122 before the district election officer and collector Sanjay Kumar Mishra. The district election officer and the collector, while hearing the election petition immediately issued a certificate declaring the defeated candidate as the winner at around 7pm. The collector, despite being victorious, did not provide him with an opportunity to present his case, which is against natural justice,” said the petitioner.

Senior advocate Manoj Sharma, appearing for the petitioner said the district collector was not working like the district election officer of the election commission. “He worked as an agent of the ruling party,” he alleged.

After hearing the petition, the single bench directed the district collector to make the petitioner non-applicant in the plea. The single bench summoned him personally on August 17.

When contacted, district collector Sanjay Mishra refused to comment saying the matter is pending before the court.