B. Dayal, J. - (1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution praying for issue of a writ in the nature of certiorari to respondent No. 1 (Election Tribunal, Meerut) quashing the order dated the 13th of December, 1958, by which the election petition against the petitioner was allowed, and for ancillary reliefs which are not relevant.
(2.) This petition arises out of election of members of the Municipal Board of the city of Meerut relating to ward No. 3 which is a three member constituency. Elections were held in the month of October, 1957. The petitioner (Shri Rajendra Pal) was one of the candidates from the general seat who was elected and secured 1,231 votes. Shri Abdul Rahman obtained 957 votes and he was also elected to the other general seat. The third seat was a reserve seat to which Shri Debi Dayal was elected. As a result of this election, an election petition was filed by respondents Nos. 2 to 21 and one Tejpal who is since dead and is not a party to this petition. This election petition was presented to Shri G. S. Singh Addl. Collector, Meerut on the 18th of November, 1957 when the Election Tribunal had not been appointed. The said Addl. Collector received the election petition and passed it on to Shri H. N. Kapoor, (respondent No. 1), who was subsequently appointed as Election Tribunal. With this petition a court-fee of Rs. 125/- was paid and security deposit of Rs. 100/- only was made. This was sufficient for one petition under the rules. But the contention of the applicant was that since election of three members was challenged in that petition, three separate court-fees and three security deposits ought to have been made. It was also objected that the presentation of this petition to the Addl. Collector (Shri G.S. Singh) was against law and vitiated the whole proceeding.
(3.) This election petition was contested and several issues were framed for decision. But all of them were decided in favour of the present petitioner and the election petition was dismissed so far as the other two candidates were concerned but was allowed only regarding the election of the petitioner (Shri Rajendra Pal) on the basis of only one instance of attempted impersonation by one Ram Kishore as Bhagwan Singh (Voter No. 1558). It is against this order that this writ petition has been filed.;