GANGADHARAN Vs. UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THOUGH this Original Petition was heard along with other Original Petitions relating to the election to the Senate of the Calicut University. I am dealing with this Original Petition separately in view of the individual question raised therein.

(2.) THE Petitioner and respondent No. 4 are registered Graduates of the Calicut University in terms of Statute 3 (9) of the Calicut University (Registration of Graduates) First Statutes, 1975. Both of them belong to the Scheduled Caste. Under Statute 5 only those Graduates who are ordinarily resident within the territorial limits of the Calicut University would be entitled to registration. As a matter of fact Clause. 5 insists on an affidavit being filed along with the application for registration affirming that the applicant is ordinarily resident within the territorial limits of the University. THE territorial limits of the Calicut University is confined to the Districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Calicut, Wynad, Malappuram, Palghat and Trichur. Once a candidate is registered, Statue 8 provides that he is eligible to participate in the elections provided his registration was 60 days prior to the date of publication of the electoral roll. Statute 7 provides for revision and correction of the register of Graduates on the 1st day of November of each year. Statute 10 insists that every registered Graduate should report his change of address to the Registrar. Statute 10 (2) gives the power to the Registrar to remove the name of a registered Graduate from the register if such change of address is not intimated to him and when any communication posted to the concerned Graduate in his address as originally registered in the register is returned undelivered with an endorsement that the addressee has shifted. Statute 10 (3) gives the power to the Vice Chancellor to make an enquiry and to remove the name of any Graduate on being satisfied that he is dead. Statute 10 (4) deals with the contingency of a Graduate being deprived of his degree and the power to remove him from the register. Statute 10 (5) provides that if the Vice Chancellor on enquiry is satisfied that a Graduate who has registered his name in the register of Graduates has shifted his residence from the University area, he shall remove his name from the register of Graduates. Thus Statute 10 (5) not only confers a right on the Vice Chancellor to conduct an enquiry and to remove a Graduate on his shifting his residence from the University area but it also imposes a duty on him to do so

(3.) RESPONDENT No. 4 seeks to meet the challenge so made by contending that since no objection was taken to his inclusion in the voters' list an objection of the above nature cannot be raised in challenge to the acceptance of his nomination, that respondent No. 4 continues to be normally resident within the territorial jurisdiction of the Calicut University, that the mere fact that he had to reside in Trivandrum in connection with his employment cannot deprive him of his right as a registered Graduate and that therefore the Original Petition was liable to be dismissed. He also submitted that he was receiving all the correspondence issued to him in the address given by him at the time of his registration and consequently Statute 10 relied on by the petitioner did not have any application.