IMPORTANT POINTS
The words 'single voting' in Rule 9(2) can only mean a 'single event' or a 'single polling', since otherwise, it would be unnecessary to have specified so therein. It is ineluctable that the Rule makers clearly intended that when there are more than one vacancy occurring, there need not be separate polling to fill up each of such vacancies, but that all of them can be filled up by 'one voting', which is to mean one polling.

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner decries the elections conducted by the 2nd respondent-State Election Commission to one of the Standing Committees of the 4th respondent-Corporation of Cochin, assailing the method and manner adopted by it in the said process-asserting that since there was only one vacancy to be filled up, the Election Commission ought to have issued single preference ballot paper to the voters than multiple preference ones, as has been done by them.

2. The petitioner states that she is an elected Counsellor of the Corporation of Cochin and that, on account of the demise of another member, there arose a casual vacancy in its Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance. She says that she, therefore, offered herself as a candidate to the consequent elections, along with the 5th respondent herein, but that in the polling that took place thereafter, the latter was declared elected, since he secured more votes.

3. The petitioner, however, alleges that the process adopted by the State Election Commission while conducting the said election was contrary to the Kerala Municipalities Act, 1994 ((herein after referred to as 'the Act' for short) and the Kerala Municipality Standing Committee Rules, 2000 ((herein after referred to as 'the Rules' for short) and therefore, that the elections be set aside or declared to be null and void.

4. Sri.C.S.Ajith Prakash-learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, opened his submissions by referring to Section 21(2) of the Act and Rules 7(4) and 9(2) of the Rules. According to him, when there occurs only one vacancy, then the State Election Commission ought to have used only a single preference ballot paper, in which voters mark their choice of their candidate using an 'x' mark. He contends that, as is manifest from Rule 9 of the Rules, if more than one casual vacancy occurs at a time in a Standing Committee, then such vacancies must be filled up in a 'single voting', which should be interpreted to mean 'single transferable vote' and therefore, that in any other situation, namely, when only one vacancy arises, the election must be conducted using a single preference ballot paper. He thus exhorts this Court to set aside the election conducted by the Election Commission, since it has been completed using ballot papers in which multiple preferences were permitted.

5. Sri.Murali Purushothaman, learned Standing Counsel for the Election Commission, submits that the assertions and allegations of the petitioner as afore are wholly flawed, going by the substantive provisions of the applicable Section of the Act, which is Section 21(3). He says that, as is ineluctable there-from, every election to a Standing Committee shall be conducted by single transferable voting and that this is made further irrefutable by Section 7(4) of the Act, wherein again, it provides that the voting shall be done under the system of proportional representation, using single transferable vote. He says, therefore, that whatever be the number of vacancies, be that one or more, the Election Commission can only go by these imperative statutory provisions and allow the polling to be done under the system of proportional representation through single transferable votes.

6. Thereafter, as regards the afore recorded submissions of Sri.Ajith Prakash edificed on Rule 9(2) of the Rules, Sri.Murali Purushothaman asserts that the word 'single voting' mentioned in the said Rule can only be interpreted to mean a single polling and not a 'single transferable vote', because otherwise, it will lead to interpretational absurdity. He, consequently, prays that this Writ Petition be dismissed.

7. I have considered the afore submissions and have also searchingly examined the provisions applicable.

8. It is luculent and uncontested that the manner of conduct of elections to the Standing Committee of a Municipal Corporation is guided exclusively by Section 21 of the Act, the 3rd sub section of which reads as under:

In every Standing Committee, there shall