Law: Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 1979

Section: 24

Punjab Local Government Ordinance (VI of 1979)-- ---S. 24---Punjab Local Councils (Election) Rules, 1979, Rr. 13, 15, 69 & 73(7)--Constitution of Pakistan (1973), Art. 199---Election petition---Constitutional jurisdiction, exercise of---Election of petitioner was declared as a whole to be void on account of failure of petitioner to submit statement of election expenses within statutory period of 30 days---Submission of such statement within specified period being obligatory on petitioner, and non-compliance of such obligation being a corrupt practice on his part, election, held, was rightly declared to be void as a whole by Tribunal on account of corrupt practice of petitioner---If Tribunal was wrong in declaring election as a whole to be void instead of declaring petitioner s election to be void, High Court in exercise of constitutional jurisdiction which is essentially discretionary, would not like to interfere in the matter more so when no prejudice had been caused to petitioner, rather declaring election as a whole to be void, was to his advantage. Sayed Jamshed Ali for Petitioner. Date of hearing: 23th May, 1989. ORDER MUHAMMAD AFZAL LONE, J.--Qazi Inayatullah, petitioner, against whom respondent No.2 filed an election petition, under .Section 24 of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 1979, was unseated from the membership of the Town Committee, Phalia and the election declared as a whole to be void by the Election Tribunal under its order dated 13-5-1989 assailed herein, on two counts. firstly, he incurred election expenses beyond permissible limits and secondly he failed to submit statement of election expenses within the statutory period of Yl days. Only the second point has been debated before us. The learned counsel has quite magnanimously conceded that the expenditure statement which should have been submitted on 29-12-1987 was aoaially filed on 3-I-1988 and was thus beyond time. Rule 69 of the Local Councils (Election) Rules, 1079, cats an ohlig_ation on a candidate for a seat of a local council to submit to the Returning Officer a statement of the election expenses and failure to comply with this rule is a corrupt practice within the meaning…