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2014 (12) TMI 1299 - HC - Indian LawsDisobeyed the directions of the Telugu Desam Party whip in relation to the election for the offices of the Chairperson and Vice - Chairperson, Zilla Praja Parishad, Prakasam District - Whether the petitioner should have invoked the remedy of appeal under Order 43 Rule 1 CPC read with Section 104 CPC instead of filing Writ Petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India to quash the impugned orders? - Held that:- In the present case, the District Court relied on certain newspaper reports (Exs.B -15 and B -16) to hold that there is press coverage regarding the election to the post of Chairperson/Vice Chairperson to the ZPP, Prakasam District and therefore the petitioner is deemed to have constructive knowledge of the whip. A reading of these two news items shows that there is no mention of issuance of a whip by the TDP party directing to vote in favour of any candidate in the said election. In this view of the matter, it has to be held that this finding of the District Court is based on no evidence/deliberate misreading of evidence and perverse. We also do not agree with contention of Counsel for 3rd respondent that in his explanations dt.04 -08 -2014 to the show cause notice dt.28 -07 -2014 issued by the 1st respondent, the petitioner had not raised the plea that his signatures were forged on the acknowledgments of the whips. The petitioner had clearly stated that he was not in Ongole town on 12.7.2014 and there was no possibility for him to sign the alleged whips. Thus petitioner has implied that his signatures were forged on acknowledgements. I do no agree with plea of 3rd respondent that a reading of the explanations of petitioner suggest that the petitioner is implying that blank whip forms on which his signatures were obtained for the election scheduled on 05 -07 -2014 and which later got postponed to 13 -07 -2014 were misused by filling them up. I have read the explanations and it does not appear to be so. When the petitioner had disputed his signatures on the acknowledgments of whips and contended that they are forged and the whips are fabricated, by wrongly placing the burden of proof on the petitioner to prove that he did not sign the whips, the District Court appears to have come to a wrong conclusion. In this view of the matter, prima facie, the impugned order passed by the District Court suffers from error apparent on the face of record in as much as it has not considered mandatory statutory Rules 21 and 22 of the Rules; has given findings based on no evidence/deliberate misreading of evidence perversely; and also wrongly placed burden of proof of petitioner to prove that he did not sign the acknowledgements of whips. This, in my opinion, has resulted in grave injustice to the petitioner warranting interference in Writ jurisdiction. Since the Writ Petitions satisfy the parameters for interference in a Writ of Certiorari by this Court; they are accordingly allowed and the orders on the file of the I Additional District Judge, Ongole are quashed; consequently, the orders of the 1st respondent disqualifying the petitioner as ZPTC Member, Ponnaluru and consequently, as Chairperson, Zilla Praja Parishad, Prakasam District, are suspended. The District Court is directed to dispose of both E.O.Ps in accordance with law uninfluenced by the order dt.11.7.2014 or its order dt.7.10.2014 or this order, expeditiously within 6 months from date of receipt of copy of this order.
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