M.P.Singh - (1.) -The petitioner wis elected as Pradhan on 5-6-1988 of Gaon Sabha Sakatpur, Respondent no, 3 challenged the said election by means of an election petition under section 12-C of the U. P. Panchayat Raj Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act).
(2.) THE petitioner raised a preliminary objection in the election petition that the election of the Petitioner as Pradhan of Gaon Sabha Samatpur was challenged and as such the same was; not maintainable. THE respondent no. 3 realised the mistake that in place of Sakatpur, the word 'Samatpur' has been typed out. He made an application for amendment of the election petition that instead of ward 'Samatpur' it may be corrected as 'Sakatpur'. After hearing the parties the Sub-Divisional Officer allowed the amendment application by recording a finding that the letter 'm' has been wrongly typed in place of 'k' in the word 'Sakatpur'. The preliminary objection raised by the petitioner was accordingly rejected and the amendment has been allowed. Against that order the petitioner filed a revision. It was dismissed by the learned District Judge on 28-10-1988. The said order is under challenge in the present writ petition.
(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner contended that the security deposited by the respondent no. 3 was regarding village Samatpur and not for Sakatpur and as such it was not a valid deposit. THE election petition under section 12-C of the Act was not maintainable. The settled view of law is that the courts while dealing with the amendment application should be extremely liberal and the same should not be refused on technical grounds. Reference may be made to the cases Mst. Hamidan v V. Addl. District Judge, Allahabad 1983 UPRCC 347 and Lal Ji Singh v. District Magistrate, Gorakhpur, 1982 (8)ALR 221 SC.;