IBRAHIMKUTTY Vs. UNIVERSITY OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Elections were held to elect seven members to the Senate of the University of Kerala. The results were declared on 13-6-1988. Petitioner was declared as one of those elected. He is the Principal of a Government Junior College, namely the Government Arts and Science College, Chavara.

(2.) The relevant portions of S.17 of the Kerala University Act, 1974 (which lays down the constitution of the Senate) read:-

(3.) There were fourteen candidates including the petitioner and the 4th respondent who contested at the election. The election was conducted as per the provisions of the Kerala University (Conduct of Elections to Various Authorities or Bodies) First Statutes, 1974. The election was held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. Under this system, each elector has as many preferences as there are candidates which be indicates in the ballot paper by placing the figures 1 2, 3 against the names of the candidates. The quota of votes which will enable a candidate to be declared elected in this election was six. At the end of the first round of counting, five candidates did not get any vote at all and they were eliminated. Of the other nine candidates, five namely, Prof. Abraham Arakal, Prof. A. Rema Bai, Prof. G. Pankajakshan, Rev. K. A. Abraham and Prof. T. A. Dhanapalan got six or more votes and they were accordingly declared elected. The first three namely, Prof. Abraham Arakal, Prof. A. Rema Bai and Prof. G. Pankajakshan were all Principals of private (i.e. non Governmental) First Grade Colleges. Rev. K. A. Abraham was the Principal of a private Professional College while Prof. T. A. Dhanapalan was the Principal of a Government First Grade College. After the first count therefore, there were inter alia one Principal of a Professional College and one Principal of a Government College to both of which there is express reference in the relevant part of S.17, extracted earlier.