Candidate elected in democratic process cannot be stopped from assuming office: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently directed the authorities in Haryana to immediately hand over the charge of Sarpanch to a man who was elected to the panchayat in 2022 but had not been allowed to assume charge [Sandeep Kumar v. Vinod and Others]..Despite his win, the winning candidate Sandeep Kumar had not been given the post of Sarpanch Asaudah (Siwan) in district Jhajjar due to pendency of a writ petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.The petition before the High Court was moved by another candidate Vinod, whose nomination paper had been rejected by the returning officer.Though Kumar also later approached the High Court seeking directions for his appointment, there had been no progress in the matter..A Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah said the law is clear that once elections are announced, they should not be interfered with and after the election, the only remedy is to file an election petition.The rejection of a nomination paper is definitely one of the grounds that can be raised in an election petition, it added.In the present case, it found that Vinod had not filed an election petition and even in the writ petition, Kumar had not been made a party. Accordingly, the top court said an interim order needs to be passed in favour of the winning candidate."Under these circumstances, we are of the opinion that an interim order needs to be passed in this case as a candidate who has been duly elected in a democratic process cannot be stopped from assuming the elected office, particularly in the manner in which it has been done," the Court stated. .In the present case, Vinod's candidature had been rejected as his matriculation certification was allegedly not from a recognised board. The High Court in an interim order had directed the returning officer to accept his nomination papers.However, the election for the Ppnchayat had already taken place by then and Kumar was declared winner. State Election Commissioner told the top court that they have also filed a petition before to challenge the order passed by High Court in Vinod's case..While granting relief to Kumar, the Court said his petition be tagged with the already pending plea of State Election Commissioner."We also make it very clear that any of our observations here will not prejudice the rights of any of the parties in case they choose to file an election petition challenging the election of the appellant to the office of Sarpanch," it added. .Senior Advocate Rameshwar Singh Malik and advocates Jitesh Malik, Jatin Hooda, Abhaya Nath Das, Sunil Kumar Das, Monica Goel and Satish Kumar appeared for the appellant.Advocates Siddharth Mittal, Darshan Sejwal, Sumit Kumar Sharma and Abhijeet Varshney appeared for the respondents..[Read Judgment]