KRISHNAN NAMBEESAN Vs. VICE CHANCELLOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been filed by the writ petitioners in O. P. No. 2358 of 1980 against the Judgment of a learned Single Judge of this Court dismissing the said Original Petition. The writ petitioners are two in number. The 1st petitioner is holding the post of a reader in the department of Marine Sciences in the Cochin University and the 2nd petitioner is working in the same department of the University as Lecturer in Marine Sciences. The 1st respondent in the writ petition is the Vice Chancellor of the Cochin University. The 2nd respondent is the Registrar of the University, who is to function as the returning officer for the conduct of elections to the various authorities under the University. Respondents Nos. 3 and 4 in the writ petition are Deans of two of the faculties of the University, who are functioning as ex officio members of the Syndicate under S.16(1) of the Cochin University Act, for short, the Act, by virtue of their having been elected by all the Deans as their nominees on the Syndicate.

(2.) The term of the Syndicate of the University having expired on 20th May 1980 the Registrar, in his capacity as returning officer, notified that elections to the Syndicate would be conducted on 16th June 1980. The elections had however to be postponed by reason of an order of interim stay passed by this Court in O. P. No. 1966 of 1980, filed by one Professor Velayudhan. That stay was subsequently vacated on 23rd June 1980. The Original Petition, out of which this appeal has arisen, was filed by the writ petitioners on 8th July 1980 and the relicts sought were that a writ of mandamus should be issued commanding respondents No. 1 and 2 to conduct elections to the Syndicate of the University of Cochin on the basis of the notification Ext. P2 dated 5th June 1980 publishing the names and addresses of the candidates whose nominations for election to the Syndicate had been declared to be valid and that a direction should also be issued commanding respondents No. 1 and 2 not to convene any further meeting of the erstwhile Syndicate of the University of Cochin whose term had expired on 20th May 1980. Another prayer contained in the writ petition was for a declaration that respondents Nos. 3 and 4 were no longer members of the Syndicate of the Cochin University in view of the fact that the period of the erstwhile Syndicate had expired on 20th May 1980.

(3.) The main grievance put forward by the writ petitioners before the learned Single Judge was that the elections to the Syndicate were proposed to be conducted by the Returning Officer on the basis that respondents No. 3 and 4 were entitled to exercise the right of franchise in their capacity as members of the Senate which position they would be entitled to occupy by virtue of their membership of the Syndicate. According to the petitioners, respondents No. 3 and 4 had automatically ceased to be members of the Syndicate on the expiration of the term of the Syndicate and hence the Returning Officer was acting illegally in treating these two respondents as persons entitled to exercise their right to vote in the elections proposed to be conducted to the Syndicate. The learned Judge examined this question with reference to the various provisions contained in the Act and the First Statutes and came to the conclusion that the Syndicate is a body functioning without a break and hence the contention put forward by the petitioners cannot be accepted. It is on this basis that the writ petition has been dismissed.