The petitioner, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeks intervention of this Court in the conduct of proper elections to the 1st respondent political party, more specifically to the various committees in the hierarchy of the party as available under Exhibit P1.

2. Notice was issued on admission, since this Court wanted to hear the petitioner and the respondents first on the maintainability of the writ petition.

3. The petitioner is a member of the 1st respondent, a National political party registered by the Election Commission of India under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 [for brevity “RP Act”]. The petitioner, to invoke the jurisdiction under Article 226, contends that the 1st respondent is discharging public functions/duties that are fundamental to democracy and, hence, is amenable to writ jurisdiction under Article 226. The petitioner submits that the organizational hierarchy as per Exhibit P1 speaks of a 5-tier Committee; to all of which the office bearers are to be elected. The last elections were conducted in the year 2010 and the period of the elected committees have expired in the year 2015. The party had approached Election Commission with a request for postponing the elections and as of now the Election Commission has directed the elections to be conducted before 31.12.2017. A notification is said to have been issued, as seen from Exhibit P6 by the highest Committee in the hierarchy, the All India Congress Committee.

4. The 4th respondent is appointed for conducting elections within the State of Kerala and 6th respondent for the Pathanamthitta District Congress Committee [DCC]. The petitioner is said to be the Vice-President of the 5th respondent, District Congress Committee [DCC] of Pathanamthitta. Despite the guidelines for organizational election as seen from Exhibit P6, the respondents 4 and 6 did nothing to go ahead with the election process. The leaders of the political party are opposing the organizational election and are attempting to share organizational posts among the different factions. Not even the preliminary voters list was published and there is an attempt by both the 4th and 6th respondents to select candidates by a consensus. It is also alleged that the 3rd respondent has given direction to the DCC's within Kerala to forward list of 2 persons from each booth and a list of DCC members from each Block Congress Committee. The petitioner, hence, seeks a mandamus to the respondents 1 to 6 to conduct organizational elections within the State of Kerala in accordance with Exhibits P1 and P6 and restrain the said respondents from filling up the post of elected members and elected office bearers except in accordance with the elections as stipulated in Exhibits P1 and P6. A writ of mandamus is also sought to the 7th respondent, the Election Commission, to take appropriate decision on Exhibit P12, a complaint; the subject of which is the un-democratic manner in which the organizational elections of Indian National Congress is conducted; while its constitution profess otherwise.

5. The learned Counsel for the petitioner submits that the political parties, as registered under the RP Act, discharge a public function and their members occupy seats in the various Legislatures and also the Parliament and at different times function as the Government wherever and whenever they have a majority. The political parties, for registration under Section 29A, of the R.P.Act have to comply with the guidelines prescribed by the Election Commission in exercise of the powers conferred by Article 324 of the Constitution of India. Exhibit P4 is the guidelines which require an application to be made, accompanied by the documents as specified in para 3 of the guidelines. The guidelines insist that the party constitution should inter alia reveal the organizational structure with delineated powers and functions of each of these organs which exercise their respective powers in a true democ