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Judgment
A.B. Chaudhari, J.—By the present petition, the petitioners have put to challenge the resolution passed by Zilla Parishad, Chandrapr, in the special meeting conducted on 2.1.2010 in the matter of allotment of subject committees. The only ground of challenge raised before us by the learned Counsel for the petitioner is that the voting in the meeting in which allotment of subject committees was made ought to have been taken by secret ballot as that is the best known democratic process. He relied on the following decisions.
(i) Jaenendrakumar Phoolchand Daftari Vs. Rajendra Ramsukh Mishra, .
(ii) Maruti Bandu Patil Vs. Village Panchayat, Sidhanerli and Others, .
Per contra, learned A.G.P. opposed the writ petition and prayed for its dismissal.
We have gone through the concerned rule providing for modality of holding election for allotment of the subject committees. Rule 6 of The Maharashtra Zilla Parishads [(President, Vice President and Chairman of Subjects Committees)] and Panchayat Samitis [(Chairman and Deputy Chairman)] [(Reservation of offices and Election)] Rules, 1962 reads thus:
Procedure for elections.- (1) ....
(2) ....
(3) The Officer presiding shall, announce the name of each contesting candidate in the alphabetical sequence and shall record voting by show of hands. The names of the Councillors who have voted in favour of that candidate shall be recorded in the minutes. The Officer presiding shall decide the manner of recording of the proceedings in writing and also record the proceedings by way of videography to ensure free and fair elections.
(4) The Officer presiding shall ensure that every Councillor who desires to cast his vote has been given fair and reasonable opportunity to cast his vote and the vote so cast has been recorded properly against the name of the candidate in whose favour the vote is cast. The Councillor, whose vote is recorded once, shall not be allowed to re-cast or change his vote.
(5) The Officer presiding shall record the names of the Councillors who have voted or abstained from voting and shall announce the number of valid votes secured by each contesting Councillor. The Officer presiding shall then declare, the candidate who obtains the highest number of valid votes to have been duly elected, as the President.
The rule nowhere contemplates holding of election for allotment of subject committees by secret ballot. On the contrary, it speaks about voting by show of hands. Since the process of election is governed by the rules or statutory provisions, the elections are required to be held in the manner laid down therein and in no other manner. The decision of supreme court in Jaenendrakumar Phoolchand Daftari Vs. Rajendra Ramsukh Mishra, , supra, is of no avail to the petitioners as Rule 10(2) of the Bombay Village Panchayats Act which fell for consideration in that case clearly provided that the voting shall take place by show of hands and in case a single member present in the meeting demands voting by secret ballot, the voting will have to be taken by secret ballot. Such is not the case in hand. In the case in hand the rule does not speak of allowing secret ballot even if there is demand by a single member in the meeting for secret ballot. In the absence of any provision to that effect, we do not think that we would be justified in adding something in the rules which does not exist. The judgments cited by the learned Counsel for the petitioner are therefore not applicable to the facts of the present case. In the result, we do not find any merit in this writ petition. Writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs.