JOHN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer in the writ petition is to declare that the elections held on 9/7/2022 to the 6th respondent Society and Ext.P10 as void and that it is not an election in the eye of law. There is also a prayer for a direction to the 2nd respondent to appoint an Administrative Committee from among the members of the last Managing Committee till fresh polling is conducted and results are declared. There are consequential prayers made to the effect that there should be a direction to the 4th respondent Returning Officer to permit all the members in the final voters' list published on 15/12/2020 with Form 6A identification cards and any other document mentioned in Rule 35n(ix) of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Rules, 1969 ('the KCS Rules' for short) to vote in the polling next scheduled.

(2.) The 6th respondent is a Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Society. The petitioner states that there are 14654 members. It is stated that elections were notified to be held on 9/7/2022 after a long-drawn-out legal battle at the instance of the petitioners. It is stated that to defeat the cause, the respondents permitted only 830 out of 14654 members to vote. On the basis of the said voting, the 4th respondent Returning Officer declared respondents 7 to 17 as elected. It is in the above circumstances that the writ petition has been filed.

(3.) The term of the earlier Managing Committee was due to expire on 16/1/2021. The earlier Managing Committee, in which petitioners 1, 3, and 4 were also members, resolved to hold elections on 10/1/2021. The 3rd respondent notified elections as per Ext.P1 notification dtd. 27/11/2020. Pursuant to Ext.P1 notification, the Bank issued a preliminary voters list, which had 14654 members, including the petitioners. No complaints were received against the preliminary voters list. On 15/12/2020, the final voters list was issued, which also contained the names of the petitioners as members. Ext.P1(a) produced, is the relevant pages of the final voters' list, which had 14654 members.