Justice Vivek Agrawal said district collector was "acting as a political agent". (Representational)
A Madhya Pradesh high court judge on Wednesday pulled up a senior IAS officer for declaring a losing candidate in the panchayat elections as the winner and declared that the officer "should be removed" as he is not fit to hold the post.
"He's acting as a political agent. He is not fit to be a collector, should be removed as a collector," Justice Vivek Agrawal observed.
The court made the remarks while hearing the petition against the wrongful declaration of the winner in last month's vice-chairperson polls in Gunnor Janpad Panchayat.
While hearing the matter, Justice Vivek Agrawal came down heavily on the Panna district collector Sanjay Mishra and said that the officer has "no regards for principles of natural justice" and thus should be removed from the post of district collector.
The 25-member strong Gunnor Janpad Panchayat held elections for the post of chairperson and vice-chairperson on July 27.
In the vice-chairperson poll, the Congress-backed candidate Parmanand Sharma defeated the nearest rival Ramshiromani Mishra (backed by ruling BJP) by securing 13 out of the 25 votes. The presiding officer of the election subsequently issued the election certificate to the winning candidate Parmanand Sharma the same day. But the same day, an election petition was filed by the losing candidate Ramshiromani Mishra before the Panna district collector challenging the poll outcome.
The winner Parmanand Sharma alleged district collector Sanjay Mishra, without giving an opportunity of hearing to him passed an ex parte order, annulling the poll result. He then called for a fresh election the next day through the lottery system and later declared the losing candidate Ramshiromani Mishra as the winner.