DILRAG.E Vs. ORIENTAL SCHOOL OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed by the regular students of Oriental School of Hotel Management, affiliated to the University of Calicut, aggrieved by rejection of nominations submitted by the petitioners by the Returning Officer of the 1 st respondent college. Brief material facts for the disposal of the writ petition are as follows;

(2.) Election to the Students' Union of the 1 st respondent college was scheduled on 5.9.2019. First petitioner submitted his nomination to contest the post of Councillor to the Calicut University Union - 1, 2nd petitioner submitted nomination for the post of General Captain of Sports and Games, 3 rd petitioner submitted nominations for the post of Secretary - Fine Arts, 4th petitioner to the post of Chief Student Editor of the College Magazine. According to the petitioners, they have submitted their nominations in the prescribed format to the 2 nd respondent on 26.8.2019, which is accompanied by the certificate that, no academic arrears is remaining and that, petitioners are having sufficient percentage of attendance. However, assigning the reason that, the course attended by the petitioners are omitted to be mentioned in the certificate, 2 nd respondent rejected the nomination papers of the petitioners. It is also submitted that, the nomination papers of the petitioners are rejected for no fault of them. Even though petitioners have pointed out that, the mistake crept in the certificate accompanying the nomination papers is only a technical mistake occurred due to the inadvertence on the part of the concerned staff of the 1st respondent college and petitioners may not be penalised, it was not agreed upon by the 2 nd respondent and the petitioners are not included in the list of valid nominations received to the election.

(3.) Second respondent Returning Officer has filed a counter affidavit, in which it is stated that, the nomination submitted by the 1 st petitioner was rejected for the reason that, he had not mentioned the course name in the certificate submitted before the Returning Officer and the Scrutiny Committee and the 2nd petitioner had not mentioned the correct course name in the certificate and also there was spelling mistake in the nomination paper. Third petitioner had not mentioned his course name - B.Sc in the nomination paper and he omitted to mention his course name in the certificate also and in the case of 4th petitioner, there occurred a spelling mistake in the nomination paper and in the certificate produced along with the nomination, no course name is mentioned, evident from Exts.R2(a) to R2(d) documents. Other contentions are raised to the effect that, various nominations were rejected and the nominations of petitioners were rejected in accordance with law. Therefore, petitioners have not made out any case of illegality or arbitrariness justifying interference of this court. Other respondents who have got themselves impleaded have also filed counter affidavits making their contentions in similar lines as that of the 2 nd respondent.