Ali Mohd. Magrey, J.:-

1. The petitioner's nomination form to the 08-Sopore Assembly Constituency has been rejected by the Returning Officer and he has approached hill Court through ibis writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 103 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir (for short the State Constitution) seeking a writ of mandamus to command the respondents to accept and entertain his nomination paper. Upon notice, respondents have filed their reply wherein, besides contesting the petition on merits, they have raised preliminary objection to the maintainability of the writ petition.

2. Since the very maintainability of the writ petition is in question, therefore, I think it would be unnecessary to narrate the facts averred in the writ petition or the replies thereto filed by the respondents as they are irrelevant to the question of law that falls for determination.

3. Scrutiny of nomination papers and rejection or acceptance thereof falls within the connotation of the term 'election'. The question whether an election can be challenged in a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 103 of the State