KANHAIYALAL TIWARI Vs. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER JANAPADA SABHA, LAKHNADON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner Kanhaiyalal Tiwari in this case was elected as the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha, Lakhnadon, in 1954. In 1962, while holding that office, he was elected as the Sarpnnch of Khursipar Gram Panchayat. On 2nd August 1962, the Chief Executive Officer, Lakhnadon Janapada Sabha, addressed a letter to the Petitioner informing him that as he was the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha and was also elected as the Sarpanch of the Gram Panchayat and as he had failed to resign one of the offices within seven days of his election as the Sarpanch as required by Section 21 of the Central Provinces and Berar Local Government Act 1948, (hereinafter referred to as the Act), he had ceased to be the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha. By this petition, the applicant now prays that the order of the Chief Executive Officer of the Janapada Sabha communicated to him by the letter dated 2nd August 1962 that he was no longer the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha be quashed by the issue of a writ of certiorari(sic), and that a direction be issued to the opponents prohibiting them from interfering with the discharge of his duties, powers and functions as the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha.

(2.) THE short question that arises for determination in this case is whether the Act imposes any bar on the holding by a person of two offices, namely, the Chairman of a Janapada Sabha and the Sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat, and if it does, whether the Petitioner, who was admittedly elected to the two offices, had the option of selecting which office he will continue to hold, and whether on account of his failure to exercise the option within any prescribed period, he has ceased to be the Chairman of the Janapada Sabha. The question turs(sic) on the true construction of Section 21 of the Act, which runs as follows -

(3.) WE are unable to accept the construction sought to be put by the learned Counsel for the Petitioner on Section 21 of the Act. It is quite true that the first two Sub -sections do not make a person ineligible for election or appointed to any of the offices mentioned in those Sub -sections in any local authority or any Sabha if he is at the time of the election or appointment holding a similar office in another Sabha. But they do impose a bar on the simultaneous holding of the specified offices in two Sabhas or in a Sabha and in any other local authority. The bar applies, no matter whether the election or appointment to two offices is, simultaneous, or within a short interval or after a long period. This is clear from Sub -section (3) of Section 21, which says that if a person is elected or appointed to two offices, which he is prevented from holding simultaneously under Sub -section (1) or (2) then the consequences mentioned in that Sub -section would follow if the person fails to resign one of the offices within seven days from the date of his second election or appointment The contention of the Petitioner that the bar imposed by Section 71 applies only to those cases where a person is elected to two offices simultaneously or within a short in erval, does not find any support in the plain language of Section 21 and in the logic and reason behind the principle underlying Section 21 that a per son should not, at one and the same time, hold two offices. It is easy to see that Sub -section (3) would become altogether otiose if it is held that the bar imposed by Sub -sections (1) and (2) applies when the election or appointment of a person to two offices is simultaneous. So to hold would be to read Sub -sections (1) and (2) as provisions making a person ineligible for election or appointment to an office in a Sabha or any local authority while holding a similar office in another Sabha. In our judgment, the plain meaning of Section 21 is that a person cannot be the Chairman or Deputy Chairman in two Sabhas or in a Sabha and in any other local authority, and that if he is elected or appointed to these offices in two bodies then he has to resign from any one of the offices within seven days from the date of his second election or appointment.