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Judgment
In this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner is seeking setting aside of the order dated 31.10.2017 issued by respondent No. 3 - Block Development Officer & Programme Officer, MGNREGS, Selsella C&RD Block, West Garo Hills District, Meghalaya [In short 'BDO'] and to declare fresh election of North Kaimbatapara-A and North Kaimbatapara-B Village Employment Council/s [In short 'VEC'] as according to the petitioner, under the said scheme it should be within thirty days as per Meghalaya Rural Employee Guarantee Scheme 2006 [In short, 'the Scheme'] .
Briefly, the facts may be noticed. Gazette Notification No. 70 dated 28.07.2006 was published in the official Gazette of Meghalaya whereby, respondent No. 3 issued a job card on 30.03.2006 to the petitioner's family.
The Scheme published in the said Gazette Notification dated 28.07.2006 was amended by the State Government on 23.03.2010 which was published in the Gazette of Meghalaya. The respondent No. 3 Vide order No. SEL.APPT /NREGS/ 2009-10/84 dated 07.12.2013 approved the names of the elected members of the North Kaimbatapara VEC.
The petitioner submitted an application to respondent No. 3 informing that the tenure of the present VEC members had expired on 03.12.2016 and the respondents are required to conduct fresh election as per the norms of the Scheme for electing the new VEC members of North Kalimbatapara. Having failed to do so, the petitioner approached this Court by way of WP(C) No. 42 of 2017 wherein, an order dated 28.06.2017 was passed directing the BDO (respondent No. 3) to conduct fresh election after allowing the petitioner to participate in the election, and then to form a committee as per the guidelines given under the heading of "Employment Council (VEC)" published in the official Gazette dated 28.07.2006. Operative portion of the aforesaid order at para 7 reads thus;
"7. On perusal of the order dated 17.02.2017 referred above, it appears that the BDO & PO, MGNREGS, Selsella C&RD Block, West Garo Hills has selected some persons to continue in the VEC member without proper election. If the time of the Committee has already expired, in such a case, the remedy is to call for a fresh election. Therefore, the BDO concerned is directed to conduct a fresh election allowing the petitioner to participate in the election and then to form a Committee as per the guidelines given in the Notification under the heading of "Employment Council (VEC)" published in the Official Gazette dated 28th July, 2006 as referred above as well as other related rules."
The case of the petitioner is that thereafter, vide order dated 31.10.2017 (Annexure-7) issued by respondent No. 3 the election was held on 20.11.2017. The grievance of the petitioner is that the fresh election which was held on 20.11.2017 was without notice published on the Notice Board of the Office of the BDO and also without making any publicity in the locality. The election was held on 20.11.2017 for two VECs in Kaimbatapara-A VEC and North Kaimbatapara-B VEC though no counting of votes was done and the election results are yet to be declared in compliance with the order dated 17.11.2017 passed by this Court in the instant petition.
Learned counsel for the parties submitted that in view of the interim order dated 17.11.2017 since the result has not been declared and more than one and half years has since expired, the writ petition may be disposed of by directing the respondents to conduct fresh election after publication of notification in the locality and also placing it on the Notice Board.
In view of the above, the writ petition is disposed of by directing respondent No. 3 to hold fresh election of Kaimbatapara-A VEC and North Kaimbatapara-B VEC within two months by following the due procedure in accordance with law.