Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act | Election Petition May Be Presented By Advocate In Immediate Presence of Party: High Court

A single judge bench of Justice HT Narendra Prasad sitting at Kalaburagi said,

"It is clear that under Section 15(1) of the 1993 Act, the Election Petition has to be presented by the petitioner to a Designated Court. Even the advocate of the petitioner presented the petition to the Designated Court in the immediate presence of the petitioner, that fulfils the requirement of law."

The observation was made while allowing the petition filed by one Devandrappa who has been declared as a winning candidate for Nagarhala-3 Constituency. Devandrappa challenged the order of Senior Civil Judge by which his application for rejecting the election petition filed by defeated candidate Huligemma (respondent) was dismissed.

Devandrappa had pleaded two grounds: (i) the Election Petition is not presented by the respondent himself; and (ii) mis-joinder of parties.

Findings:

The bench observed that the Election Petition in question was presented by the advocate and there was no reference or finding in the impugned order as to whether or not the respondent was present when the Election Petition was presented.

As regards the second contention of the petitioner that respondent has to join all the candidates to his petition, the court placed reliance on judgment of the Apex court in the case of BS Yediyurappa v. Mahalingappa, AIR 2001 Kar 61 and said,

"It is clear that those who are mentioned in Section 15(2) of the said Act must be made parties to an election petition and if they are not made a party, the election petition does not comply with the provisions of Section 15 of the Act. The Election Petition has to be dismissed under Section 17(1) of the 1993 Act...If other than the parties mentioned in Section 15(2) were made as parties, the Election Petition cannot be dismissed on that ground. Such a petition can be amended by striking out the names from an array of parties."

Thus, it held that the matter requires to be remitted back to the Senior Civil Judge for reconsideration.

Case Title: Devandrappa v. Huligemma

Case No: WRIT PETITION No.200133 OF 2022

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Kar) 381

Date of Order: 15^TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER 2022

Appearance: Ameet Kumar Deshpande, Senior Advocate for Sri Ganesh Subhashchandra Kalaburagi, Advocate for petitioner; A.M.Nagaral, Advocate for R1

Click Here To Read/Download Order