KELEI MALLIK Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution by a voter of the jaipur Notified Area Council against the order of the Returning Officer of the said council declaraing him to be disqualified under Clause (iii) of Sub-section (1) of section 16 of the Orissa Municipal Act, from standing as a candidate for election to the said Council. It is admitted that though the petitioner can sign his name in driya he cannot read and write either Oriya, or Hindi or English. Clause (iii) of sub-section (i) of Section 16 says that a person who is unable to read and write either English, Oriya or Hindi is disqualified From Standing for election to a seat in the Municipality in the State of Orissa. For this purpose a notified area council stands on the same footing as a Municipality.

(2.) MR. Palit for the petitioner urged that the literacy test laid down in Clause (iii) of sub-section (1) of Section 16 was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, that there was no reasonable nexus between the classification on the one hand and the object sought to be achieved by the Legislature, in inserting such a provision in the Act, on the other. He laid special emphasis on the fact that even for the State- Legislative Assemblies no such literacy test was laid down as a qualification.

(3.) THE principles to be observed by law courts in considering whether a particular statutory provision offends Article 14 of the Constitution have been repeatedly laid down by their Lordships of the Supreme Court and it is un-necessary to refer to them in detail here. It is sufficient to say that the Legislature is the best judge in selecting certain objects, to which the law in the first instance should apply and merely because literacy test is provided so far as elections to Municipalities are concerned and no such test is laid down for other elective bodies, such as members of the Legislature or even of Grama Punchayats, it cannot be said that such a test is prima facie unreasonable, The main point for consideration is whether there is any unreasonabieness in the selection or differentiation of the literate class from the illiterate class, for the purpose of election to Municipalities and whether there is any reasonable nexus between the basis of the classification and the subject of the statute. This object has to be ascertained primarily from the provisions of the Municipal Act itself.