Dwivedi, J. - (1.) THIS writ petition seeks to challenge the validity of the Election Tribunal's order dated 4 -9 -1958, dismissing the election petition of the Petitioner on the ground that the petition was not validly presented to the Addl. Collector.
(2.) THE facts are not in dispute. It is admitted that the Petitioner presented the election petition to Sri Gauri Shanker Singh Addl. Collector, Meerut and not to the Collector, Meerut but it is submitted that the presentation was nonetheless proper and valid. Sri Gauri Shankar Singh was appointed Addl. Collector, Meerut by the following notification: Sri Gauri Shanker Singh. City Magistrate, Kanpur is transferred to Meerut and with effect from the date he takes overcharge is appointed vice Sri Meharban Singh. (a) Under Sub -section (2) of Section 10, Code of Criminal Procedure to be an Addl. D.M. of Meerut District with jurisdiction extending over the whole of the said district and with all the powers of a District Magistrate under the said Code and under any other law for the time being in force; and (b) Under Sub -section (1) of Section 14A of the UP Land Revenue Act, 1901 to be an Addl. Collector in the said district and under Sub -section (3) of the said section he is hereby authorised to exercise all the powers and to perform all the duties of a Collector in all classes of cases. Sub -Sections (3) and (4) of the UP Land Revenue Act, under which the notification has been issued, read thus - (3) An Addl. Collector shall exercise such powers and perform such duties of a Collector in such cases or clashes of cases as the State Government or, in the absence of orders from the State Government the Commissioner concerned, may direct. This Act and every other law for the time being applicable to a Collector shall apply to every Addl. Collector when exercising any powers or discharging any duties, under Sub -section (3) as if he were the Collector of the district.
(3.) IT is obvious from the notification that under Sub -section (3) of Section 14A of he UP Land Revenue Act, Sri Gauri Shanker Singh was empowered to exercise all the powers and to perform all the duties of a Collector in all classes of cases. The words all classes of cases are sufficiently spacious to confer upon Sri Gauri Shanker Singh the powers of the Collector under the UP Land Revenue Act as well as under other enactments. Section 22(2) of the UP Municipalities Act, which applies also to Notified Area elections, empowers the Collector of the district to receive an election petition and the wide words of the notification authorised Sri Gauri Shanker Singh to exercise that power. Sub -section (4) of Section 14A provides that the Addl. Collector, when exercising any power or discharging any duty under Sub -section (3) would be deemed "as if he were the Collector of the District". The Election Tribunal has overlooked these words which enact the legal fiction that the Addl. Collector should be deemed to be the Collector of the district. The Legislature has by these words endowed him with the 'persona' of the Collector, so that Sri Gauri Shanker Singh, though in fact the Addl. Collector, would in law be deemed to have acted as the Collector of the District while receiving the Petitioner's election petition. The Tribunal's opinion that the election was not validly presented to him is therefore patently wrong.;