Notice in MC poll case

CHANDIGARH, Feb 15: A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the general assistant to the Mansa Deputy Commissioner or quot;any other competent officialquot; to permit certain members of the Bareta Municipal Council to cast their vote for the president8217;s post after convening a fresh meeting.

Pronouncing the orders in the open court, the bench, comprising Justice K S Kumaran and Justice H S Brar observed: quot;We direct the official respondents to continue the election from that stage by instructing respondent number four the general assistant to the DC or any other competent official to convene the meeting, according to the law, after giving proper notice to only such members who remained present at the venue of the meeting after respondent number six to 14 had walked out8230; Whoever gets the highest number of votes as between the petitioner and respondent number 10, should be declared elected as presidentquot;.

The bench further observed: quot;As far as vice-president is concerned, the election for the same shall be held separately, in accordance with law, in a separate meetingquot;.

Earlier, Lachman Dass, in his petition, had sought directions to the presiding officer to declare him elected as president of the Bareta Municipal Council.

Arguing before the court, the counsel for the petitioner had stated that the convener had left the meeting without declaring the result.

He had added that Lachman Dass should have been deemed elected as the other candidate Gurdeep Singh had withdrawn from the contest following a controversy over the mode of voting.