1. The petitioners in these writ petitions are members elected to different Local Self Government Institutions who contested/proposed to contest the election to the different Standing Committees in different Grama Panchayats. Whether a Returning Officer can refuse to treat the candidature of a woman member of a Local Self Government Institution, who failed to mark her intention to contest the election to a particular Standing Committee in the woman reserved seat, against the woman reserved seat in the said Standing Committee and the, treat her candidature against the unreserved seats to the said Standing Committee and the legality of such actions are the issues to be resolved in W.P.(C)Nos.34854, 35131, 35557 of 2010 and 119 of 2011. Whether the State Election Commission is having the power to extend the time or date fixed for receipt of nominations when once a notice has been issued by the Returning Officer under Rule 4(1) in terms of Rule 4(4), of the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Standing Committee) Rules, 2000 and whether anyone other than the Returning Officer, designated/nominated by the State Election Commission in respect of election to the Standing Committees to a particular Local Self Government Institution, can receive nomination papers for the said election, under any circumstance, are the questions crop up for consideration in the rest of the writ petitions. Since the aforesaid issues are pertaining to election to Standing Committees of Panchayats and the powers of the Returning Officers appointed for such purposes and the State Election Commission in respect of the aforesaid issues are to be decided with reference to certain common provisions, all these matters were jointly heard.

2. A short prelude isprofitable and hence, preferable, to decide the aforesaid issues of legal importance involved in these writ petitions. In view of the provisions under Section 162(4a) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 (for short ‘the Act’) and Rule 5(2) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Standing Committee) Rules, 2000(for short ‘The Rules’) the members to be elected to each Standing Committee shall be elected under the guidance, supervision and control of the Kerala State Election Commission and the Commission shall, by virtue of the power under Section 162(4a), designate or nominate thereto an officer of the Government or Local Self Government Institution as Returning Officer for conducting such election. In terms of Section 162(1) of the Act, in Grama Panchayats and Block Panchayats four Standing Committees viz., for Finance, for Development, for Welfare and for Health and Education shall be constituted. Section 162(2) of the Act enjoins that one of the seats of members to be elected in every Standing Committee shall be reserved for women as per sub-section (4) and all elected members of the Panchayat except the President and the Vice-President shall be elected as members of any of the Standing Committees. As per Section 162(6) of the Act, the Vice-President shall be an ex-officio member and Chairman of the Standing Committee for Finance and the President shall be an ex-officio member of all Standing Committees without the right to vote. Section 162(4) of the Act provides that in every Standing Committee there shall be members elected by the elected members of the Panchayat from among themselves under the proportional representation system by single transferable vote and a member shall not be a member of more than one Standing Committee at a time. In terms of Rules 5 of the Rules, the election to the Standing Committees to be constituted under sub-section (1) of section 162 shall be held in a meeting of the elected members of the concerned Panchayat convened by the Returning Officer for the said purpose, in the given order of the Standing Committees in the said sub-section viz., Standing Committee for Finance, Standing Committee for Development, Standing Committee for Welfare and Standing Committee for Health and Education. The man