'Not Fit To Be A Collector': MP High Court Pulls Up Bureaucrat For Declaring Loser As Winner In Panchayat Election

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) High Court (HC) on Wednesday (August 3) came down heavily on a senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer for declaring a losing candidate in the panchayat elections as the winner. The HC judge observed that the IAS officer is not fit to hold the post and "should be removed".

Justice Vivek Agrawal headed the single judge bench of MP HC and stated, "He's acting as a political agent. He is not fit to be a collector, should be removed as a collector," quoted NDTV.

What Did The Court Say?

The court made the remarks while hearing the petition against the unlawful declaration of the loser candidate as the winner in last month's vice-chairperson polls in Gunnor Janpad Panchayat.

While hearing the matter, Justice Agrawal pulled up IAS Sanjay Mishra, the Panna district collector and said that the officer has "no regard for principles of natural justice" and thus should be removed from the designation of the district collector.

What Is The Matter?

The Gunnor Janpad Panchayat, a part of the Panna district, was among the 312 Janpad Panchayats in the state, where newly elected Janpad Panchayat members had voted to elect chairperson and vice-chairperson last month, on July 27 and 28. The 25-member strong Gunnor Janpad Panchayat held elections for the same posts on July 27.

In the vice-chairperson poll, Parmanand Sharma, the Congress-backed candidate, defeated the nearest rival, Ramshiromani Mishra, the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party-backed candidate, by securing 13 out of the 25 votes, reported The New Indian Express.

The presiding officer of the election subsequently issued the election certificate to Parmanand Sharma, the winning candidate, on the same day. But later in the day, an election petition was filed by Ramshiromani Mishra, the losing candidate, before the Panna district collector challenging the poll outcome.

The winner, alleged district collector Sanjay Mishra, without giving him an opportunity to hear, passed an ex parte order, annulling the election result. The collector then called for a fresh election the next day through the lottery system and later declared the losing candidate as the winner.

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