Rajasthan High Court Lifts Stay Order On Conduct Of State Dental Council Elections

The division bench of Justice Pushpendra Singh Bhati and Justice Munnuri Laxman at the Rajasthan High Court allowed the special appeal filed by the Rajasthan State Dental Council, Jaipur, RUHS College of Dental Sciences (“RUHS”) against an order passed by the Single Judge wherein the election process to the Rajasthan State Dental Council commenced pursuant to the Election notification was stayed.

It was the case of the appellant that the nomination of the respondent was submitted by post and in the nomination papers, the signatures of the second proposer did not match his signature in his membership form of the dental council. When the scrutiny officer called the second proposer and got him signed, the same also did not match his signature appearing in the nomination form of the respondent.

As a result, after such scrutiny, the Returning Officer (“RO”) rejected the nomination of the respondent. Against such rejection, the respondent filed a writ petition and the single judge stayed the election process.

On the contrary, it was submitted by the counsel for the respondent that the rejection was made by the RO arbitrarily when it was no one's case that the signature was forged. The counsel argued that the rejection suffered from arbitrary exercises of powers by the RO to deprive the respondent's chances of contesting the election.

After hearing both the sides, the Court highlighted that it was an admitted fact that the respondent had not signed the nomination papers physically in front of the RO along with the proposers but the same were sent by post.

The Court opined that if the nomination forms were physically presented, signed by the respondent and both the proposers in the presence of the RO, the mismatch of second proposer's signature between the nomination from and on that of his membership form would have not been significant.

However, since it was sent by post, there was a possibility that the signature of the second proposer on the nomination forms could have been forged. In this light, subsequent acceptance of his signature by the second proposer at the time of scrutiny became insignificant.

Accordingly, the Court held that in light of the above facts and analysis, it could be observed that the respondent (original writ petitioner) had no prima facie case so as to be granted the interim order to the effect of staying the election.

Hence, the special appeal was allowed setting aside the stay order passed by the single judge.

Title: Rajasthan State Dental Council, Jaipur, RUHS College of Dental Sciences v Lalit Jeila and Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 346

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