CUTTACK: The more than two-year-old legal battle over election of Manita Sahu to the post of sarpanch of Saliha gram panchayat in Nuapada block without having attained the required minimum age of 21 has taken a new turn with the Orissa High Court setting aside the order of a single judge bench on the issue.
Sahu was elected to the post of sarpanch on February 27, 2017. When it was challenged by Jagdev Majhi and others, the Collector of Nuapada had declared it void and illegal. But on April 9, 2019, Justice Biswanath Rath quashed the Collector’s order observing that the latter should not have exercised the jurisdiction under section 26 of Orissa Gram Panchayats Act, 1964.
Now in a recent judgment, a copy of which was made available on Monday, a division bench comprising Justice SK Mishra and Justice Savitri Ratho set aside Justice Rath’s order saying “it is not sustainable and has to be interfered with”.
The bench said, “In our considered opinion, an application under section 26 of the Act has within its gamut the absence of qualification as well as the presence of disqualification. Though there is no mention as about the date on which the candidate should complete 21 years, we are of the opinion that it is on the date of nomination that she/he should have attained the age of 21. In this case, the factual findings of the Collector, Nuapada state that the date of birth of Manita Sahu is September 29, 1997. Hence, she had not attained the age of 21 years on the date of nomination and this was not set aside by the single judge. Therefore, her nomination is illegal and cannot be upheld by the court”, the judges observed.
While allowing the writ appeal filed by Majhi and others, the division bench said, the election of Manita Sahu to the post of sarpanch is illegal as she did not have the qualification to contest the election on the date in question. The bench further directed that Sahu shall be deemed to have vacated the office from the date of the decision of the Collector of Nuapada that she was disqualified for being elected as sarpanch on February 27, 2017.