‘Acted as a political agent’: MP High Court blasts Panna collector

The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Wednesday blasted the Panna district collector Sanjay Kumar Mishra in a case of overturning poll result and announcing a fresh winner for the post of vice-president of Gunnour Janpad panchayat, saying that the officer had “acted like a political agent, had no regards to principles of justice and should be removed as the collector”.

Judge Vivek Agarwal said during the hearing that he was passing a stricture against the collector and it will come on record. The court also stayed the order of the district collector (overturning the earlier result and declaring a new winner) and asked him to be personally present in the court on August 17.

The judge also directed the counsel of the petitioner (the candidate who finally lost) to implead the collector by name as a party in the case as serious allegations were made against him.

“Let notice be issued to the Collector to explain his conduct and also explain that why a recommendation be not made not to handover any sensitive matter like dealing with election petitions or conduct of elections in future and this recommendation be not forwarded to all the Constitutional Authorities like Election Commission of India or bodies like State Election Commission,” the court order read.

The matter pertains to the election to the post of vice-president of Gunnour Janpad panchayat on July 27, after which the petitioner Parmanand Sharma, a Congress-supported candidate, was declared the winner, as he got 13 of 25 votes. The presiding officer also handed over the winning certificate to Sharma. However, BJP-backed candidate Ramshiromani Mishra, who lost, made an appeal to the prescribed authority – the district collector Sanjay Mishra - on the same day, claiming that the ink on one of the ballot papers was between two names.

The collector then declared one vote void and, therefore, it ended in a tie between the two candidates. Next day, a lottery was arranged between the tied candidate and Mishra was declared the winner. Sharma petitioned the High Court against this order.

Several Congress leaders shared a video of the court proceedings where the judge blasted the collector and said that the case proved Congress’s allegations that the administration had worked in favour of the ruling BJP.

Former MP Congress chief Arun Yadav shared the video with a tweet that said, “Today High Court reprimanded the Panna collector Sanjay Kumar Mishra saying that the collector had worked like an agent of the ruling party and should be removed from the post. The Congress had been repeatedly saying the same – that collectors were working as puppets of the BJP government.”