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Judgment
C. V. Bhadang, J
The petitioners are the Returning Officers in respect of the General Election of 2018 of the Goa Kshatriya Maratha Samaj which is a society registered under the Societies Act.
The petition as framed and filed raises a challenge to the judgment and order dated 9.12.2020 passed by the learned Principal District Judge at Panaji, in Misc. Civil Appeal No.87/2019 which arose out of the said election.
I have heard the learned Counsel for the parties for some time.
The principal objection raised on behalf of the learned Counsel for the respondent nos.1 to 6 and the learned Counsel for the respondent no. 7 is that the Returning Officers who are only entrusted with the responsibility of holding the election, have no locus to challenge the outcome of the election, which is necessarily by the party aggrieved.
Mr. Padgaonkar, learned counsel for the petitioners states that the petitioners are not challenging the outcome of the election. The only contention raised is that there are certain observations contained in the impugned judgment of the learned District Judge which cast aspersion on the petitioners of having acted under the influence of the respondent no.6 before the learned District Judge. It is submitted that the petitioners are only aggrieved by the said observations.
If the petition is perused neither the main body of the petition, nor the prayer clause, contains any prayer for expunging particular remarks, much less sets out the grounds for claiming such relief.
Faced with this Mr. Padgaonkar, learned Counsel for the petitioners, on instructions, seeks leave to withdraw the petition with liberty to file appropriate petition for the limited relief of expunging the remarks, if any.
In such circumstances, the Writ Petition is disposed of as withdrawn. The petitioners would be at liberty to take recourse to appropriate remedy, if any, available in law for the limited relief of expunging remarks, if any, and if so advised. Rival contentions of the parties on such plea have not been examined by this Court. In the circumstances, there shall be no order as to costs.