GOPAL KRISHAN VYAS, J. - (1.) IN all the above writ petitions, the petitioners are seeking direction for quashing impugned election notice dated 27.02.2009 of Chairman and, it is, further, prayed that in the alternative the impugned notice may be kept in abeyance and a mandamus may be issued directing the respondents to abide by the mandate of law and conduct the election of Ward Member of the vacant seat before the election of Chair -person.
(2.) IN all the above writ petitions, the election of Chairman of the Municipal Board, Rawatsar/Sojat/Nokha is under challenge; more specifically, in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1836/2009, Prem Kumar Dhandu v. State and Ors. and S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 3260/2009, Hanuman Prasad v. State and Ors. the petitioners are residents of Ward No. 14 and they are challenging the election of Chairman of Municipal Board, Rawatsar which has fallen vacant due to resignation of the Chair -person Abhishek Matoria, who has become Member of the Legislative Assembly. In S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1737/2009, Jai Narayan v. State and Ors. and S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1781/2009, Ganpat Singh v. State and Ors. the challenge is made by the voters of Ward No. 18 of Sojat City (District Pali) where the post of Chairman has fallen vacant due to death of elected Chairman Bhanwar Lal on 11.04.2008. In S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1839/2009, Prem Dhandu v. State and Ors. the petitioner being voter of Ward No. 16, Nokha is challenging election of Chairman of the Municipal Board, Nokha where the post of Chairman has fallen vacant due to the then Chairman Kanhaiya Lal Jhanwar having been elected Member to the Legislative Assembly. All these writ petitions are related with election of Chairman of Municipal Board, Rawatsar/Sojat/Nokha and, therefore, the same are being decided by this common order/judgment. The petitioners are residents of their respective Ward in different towns where the seat of Ward Member is vacant and no election of Ward Member has been conducted after resignation of Ward Member of the said area; more specifically, in Rawatsar the election of Ward Member of Ward No. 14, in Sojat City the election of Ward Member of Ward No. 18 and in Nokha the election of Ward Member of Ward No. 16 have not been conducted so far and while ignoring this fact the election programme for conducting election for the post of Chairman was announced and election for the post of Chairman was scheduled on 06.03.2009. In all these writ petitions, the grievance of the petitioners is that they are desirous of contesting election of their respective Ward as they are fulfilling the necessary eligibility criteria but no election has been conducted for Ward Member; and, on the contrary, the Election Commission is going to fill up the vacancy of Chairman which fell vacant due to either resignation or death of the then Chairman. As per the petitioners, the respondents are violating the right of the citizens of the Ward because if election of Chairman will be conducted then citizen of the respective Ward would lose their valuable right of representation if the vacancy remains unfilled and if the election of Chairman is conducted which is in gross violation of the rights of the electorate of the said constituency. Further, it is submitted that if election will be conducted without first holding election of the Ward Member, then, certainly the rights of the citizens of the said Ward will be frustrated.
(3.) FOR the above reason, in all these writ petitions, the petitioners have raised mainly the ground that the respondents cannot conduct election of Chairman of the Municipal Board without holding first the election of Ward Member of the vacant seat, therefore, holding election of Chairman before election of Ward Member is illegal, unconstitutional and, therefore, the respondents may be restrained from doing so. For the said relief, the petitioners have raised so many grounds and learned Counsel for the petitioners have also argued the matter at length.;