Modi, J. - (1.) This is a writ application by Quarabali, Bhinvraj and Nemichand under Article 226 of the Constitution by which it is prayed that respondents Nos. 4 to 19 who have been lately elected as members of the Pali Municipality and respondents Nos. 20 and 21 who have been nominated by the Government thereto be restrained from functioning as members of the said municipality and that fresh elections be ordered to be held in accordance with law.
(2.) The facts which have led to the present application may be shortly stated as follows : A general election was held for the Pali municipality on the 3rd and 4th April, 1949, Respondents Nos. 4 to 19 are the successful candidates thereat who have been declared to be members of the municipality, and their names have been notified in the State Gazette. Respondents Nos. 20 and 21 appear thereafter to have been nominated as members of the said municipality. Of the petitioners, the first two are the defeated candidates, Quarabali having, offered himself as a candidate for ward No. 5 and Bhinvraj for ward No. 15, and the third petitioner Nemichand is a resident of and a voter on the electoral rolls of this municipality. It is admitted between the parties that the boundaries of this municipality were revised by a notification of the Government dated 15-2-1953, under Section 5 (1) of the Rajasthan Town Municipalities Act (No. XXIII), of 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), (Document No. 1), In 1955 by a notification dated 12-11955, before the last but one general election was held for this municipality, the composition of this board was fixed so as to consist of 17 members out of which 15 were to be elected, one from each of the 15 wards of the municipality and two were to be nominated, and the entire municipal area was decided to be divided into 15 wards and each ward was directed to return one member from it. By this very notification, the description and the extent of the several 15 wards were given (Document No. 2). Accordingly elections were held, and a municipal board was formed, and it started functioning from the 26-9-1955. The term of the board, being three years, was due to expire on 25-9-1958, but it was extended upto 3-6-1959 by the State under Section 15 of the Act. It is thus obvious that a fresh general election was due in the beginning of June, 1959. What happened in the meantime has resulted in the present development which have been rather unfortunate. By a notification published in the Rajasthan Gazette dated 17-7-1958, (document No. 3) the then Chairman of the municipal board published the extent and description of the proposed 16 wards of the Pali municipality one more than the members previously fixed. The Collector, Pali, by his notification dated 24-7-1958, which was published in the Rajasthan State Gazette dated 78-1958, announced under Section 10 of the Act that the Pali Municipality would be divided into 16 wards, and it was also mentioned that full description thereof had been already given under the notification published in the Rajasthan State Gazette dated 17-7-1958, referred to above. This notification also said that each ward will return one member by election (See document No. 4). It may be pointed out here that by notification No. F-l (b)(6) LSG/52 II dated 20-10-1955 the Government of Rajasthan acting in exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 207 of the Act ordered that all the powers of the Government under Section 10 would also be exercised by the Collectors within their respective districts. In other words, this notification gave concurrent authority to the Collectors to exercise the powers covered by Section 10 of the Act. A returning Officer, namely, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Pali, was then apparently appointed to take the necessary steps for carrying out the elections of this Municipality. Accordingly by a notification published in the State Gazette dated the 27-11-1958 the Suit-Divisional Magistrate published a programme of the forthcoming elections for the Pali Municipal Board (Document No. 5). According to this notification, the polling was to take place on the 3rd and 4th April. 1959. The preliminary electoral rolls were to be published on 4-11-1958, according to Rule 7, of the Rajasthan Town Municipal Electipn Rules, 1951, (hereinafter referred to as the rules), and after the necessary steps for the revision of the said rolls being undertaken, the final rolls were scheduled to be published on 31-1-1959 under Sub-rule 3 of Rule 11. The last date for the receipt of the nomination papers was fixed as 11-3-1959 and the final list of the candidates duly nominated was to be announced on 116-3-1959. The elections for wards Nos 1 to 8 were scheduled to be held from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. on the 3-4-1959, and likewise elections for wards Nos. 9 to 16 were to be held on 4-4-1959. The elections were accordingly held on the prescribed dates, and respondents Nos. 4 to 19 were duly declared as the elected members of this municipality. Thereafter, respondents Nos. 20 and 21, were also nominated as members of this Board by the Government although the exact date of their nomination is not disclosed on the record. It is important at this place to mention that under Section 7(1) of the Act, the State Government published a notification dated 89-1958, in the State Gazette dated 9-10-1958, (Document No. 6). by which it was proposed to extend the limits of the Pali Municipality in the manner mentioned at the foot of the notification, and objections were invited to this, within two months of the publication of the notice. It is admitted before us that certain more territory (though according to the respondents this territory was all unpopulated) was proposed to be added including Naya Gaon to the old limits of this municipality. Then came the final notification ot the Government dated 15-3-1959, which was published in the State Gazette dated 26-3-1959 by which in effect the various additions proposed to be made were accepted save that the Naya Gaon area which was earlier proposed to be added was excluded. It may be noticed that this notification came into existence long after the wards had been formed and notified by the Collector vide his notification dated 24-71958 published in the State Gazette dated 7-8-1958 (Document No. 4). After the elections were held and the names of the successful candidates were declared, the Collector by his notification dated 18-5-1959, appointed the Sub- Divisional Magistrate Pali to preside over the special meeting of the board which was called for the purpose ot holding the election of the chairman on 1-6-1959. This gave rise to the present writ application which was filed by the petitioners in this Court on 23-5-1959, during the summer vacation. An interim prayer was made to restrain the respondents No. 4 to 21 from, functioning as members of the Pali Municipal Board as also from proceeding to elect a chairman. This prayer was ordered to be considered along with the writ application itself by a learned single Judge before whom the matter originally came, and it was further directed that as the case involved questions of considerable importance, it should be placed before a Division Bench for decision. This is how the case has come before us.
(3.) From the array of facts set out above, two main points have been argued before us. The first is that the limits of the Pali Municipality as altered by the Collector were improperly acted upon for the purposes of the last general election inasmuch as the order of the Government extending the previous limits of the Pali municipality was published as late as 26-3-1959 only about a week prior to the date of the polling, and the Government was the only authority which have altered the limits under Section 7 of the Act, no powers thereunder having been delegated to the Collector or any other authority, and, therefore, in effect there was no validly delimited local area which could have gone to the polls, and almost the entire election programme right upto the settlement of the nomination of the various candidates was premature and ineffective and null and void.;