Kalan, District Mansa, petitioner Jaswinder Kaur and her opponent namely Jasbir Kaur had submitted their nomination papers for the post of Sarpanch of the village concerned, however their nomination papers were rejected, and, the post of Sarpanch of village (supra) remained vacant. Subsequently, the petitioner approached the authorities concerned, to conduct the byeelections, however, when the authorities concerned, failed to do so, thereby the petitioner approached this Court by way of CWP No. 35054 of 2019, which became disposed of by this Court on 4.12.2019, on the statement of the learned State counsel, that the bye-election for the post of Sarpanch of village Bhamme Kalan, District Mansa, would be conducted expeditiously along with the bye-elections to the Legislative Assembly. It is further submitted, that when the authorities concerned, even after the passing of the order (supra) failed to conduct the bye-elections for the post of Sarpanch of the village (supra), thereupon the petitioner filed COCP No. 399 of 2021, whereons, notice became issued to the respondents concerned. In the meantime, the authorities concerned, preferred a miscellaneous application bearing No. CM-1127-CWP-2022 seeking extension of time to conduct the bye-elections. Vide order dated 13.1.2023 (Annexure P-2), the said application became disposed of, but with a direction upon the respondents concerned, to conduct the bye-elections to the Gram Panchayat concerned, but within a period of two months. Since the respondents authorities again failed to conduct the bye-elections in the time bound manner (supra), therefore, this Court summoned the State Election Commissioner, Punjab, and imposed a cost of Rs. 50,000/-, upon him, for his deliberately and willfully disobeying the order (supra).
