SANITHA SAJI Vs. SALIMKUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An elected representative of a constituency has to represent the will of the electorate of that constituency. He is the representative of the electorate and once he is elected under the banner of a particular political party or political alliance or with an independent status, he cannot change his stand against that political party or that political alliance or his independent status without getting a fresh mandate from the electorate is the fundamental principle of democracy. The elected representative should be the voice of the people of his constituency and he cannot go against the will of his electorate according to his whims and fancies and if this is followed by our elected representatives, that will be an era noted in golden letters in our democracy. Nowadays, there is a tendency to forget this golden rule of democracy by our elected members. That is not only defection but amounts to corruption in democracy. That is the behavior of Chameleons and not that of an elected member of democracy.

(2.) To caution such elected members, the Kerala Local Authorities (Prohibition of Defection) Act, 1999 (for short, Act 1999) was enacted by the legislature. This is an Act to prohibit defection among members of local authorities in the State of Kerala and to provide for disqualification of the defecting members for being members of the local authorities. If the question of disqualification on the ground of defection arises, a member of the local authority or the political party concerned or a person authorized by it on this behalf may file a petition before the State Election Commission for a decision as per Sec. 4 of Act 1999. Invoking the powers under Sub Sec. (1) of Sec. 7 of the Act 1999, the Government of Kerala in consultation with the Kerala State Election Commission, framed the Kerala Local Authorities (Disqualification of Defected Members) Rules 2000 (for short 'Rule 2000'). A petition for disqualification is to be filed within 30 days from the date of deemed disqualification of the member as per Rule 4A (2) of Rule 2000. The proviso to Rule 4A (2) of Rule 2000 says that, if the petitioner proves that there exists sufficient reason for not filing the petition within the time limit specified, the State Election Commission may accept the petition.

(3.) Suppose an Election Petition was filed within 30 days by any of the parties mentioned in Sec. 4 of the Act, 1999 to disqualify a member and for that reason, no others filed any petition for disqualifying that member to avoid multiplicity of cases, and if the person who move the Election Commission is influenced by others to withdraw the case and decided to withdraw the petition based on that reason or for his own reasons, can that member escape from disqualification proceedings? Can any other person or party can file a fresh petition stating the above reason as a sufficient cause for condoning the delay in filing a fresh petition? These are the questions to be decided in these cases.