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 Com