JAMES SEBASTIAN Vs. STATE CO-OPERATIVE ELECTION COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, who are members of the 4th respondent-Society, impugn the final Voters' List, prepared and settled by the Electoral Officer, as being illegal and unlawful since the mandatory details, including the names of father/husband of the members, are not shown therein.

(2.) The petitioners say that going by Rule 35A(4) of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Rules (KCS Rules for short), the requirement of admission number, name of the member, name of father/husband of the member and the address of the member to be shown therein is inviolable and cannot be given up by any Electoral Officer, acting under the mandate of the KCS Act and Rules. They allege that in spite of this, the present Voters' List, a copy of which has been produced on record as Ext.P2, does not show the names of father/husband of any of the persons included therein as voters. They, therefore, pray that Ext.P2 be set aside. They also have a case that contrary to the directions of the Statutory Authorities and the various judgments of this Court, Statutory Identity Cards, issued by the Society to their members, are laminated photocopies and therefore, that such cards are also untenable in law.

(3.) In response to the afore submissions of Sri.P.N.Mohanan, the learned counsel for the petitioners, Sri.D.Somasundaram, the learned counsel appearing for the Secretary of the Society, started by admitting that the names of the father/husband of the members are not shown in Ext.P2. He says that this is because the data base of the Voters' List has been computerised and that it does not contain these particulars for the last several years, adding that it is the same list, subject to modification, that has been used in the earlier elections also. He, however, says that this will not cause any prejudice to the petitioners, since the identity of the members at the time of voting will be without any doubt since all of them will be allowed to vote only as per Rule 35A(6)(n)(ix) and further that going by Rule 16A of the KCS Rules and Form 6A, these particulars are already available in the concerned Registers as also in all the Identity Cards. Finally, as regards the allegation of lamination of the Identity Cards are concerned, he vehemently refutes the allegations of Sri.P.N.Mohanan and asserts that they have been prepared and issued as per the applicable circulars and directions of this Court.