JUDGMENT

Writ petitioners have been disqualified by the Kerala State Election Commission (for short 'the Election Commission') for violating the directions in writing issued by the political party. Writ petitioners were the respondents in O.P. No.1 of 2022 and O.P. No.2 of 2022, both of which were filed by the second respondent. The Election Commission allowed both original petitions, hence these two writ petitions.

2. The facts of these two writ petitions as revealed from the pleadings and the arguments raised before the Court are briefly narrated below:

The individuals before the Court are Sri.Marsh Peter, Smt.Praveena Ravikumar and Sri.M.Rajendran. They had contested and won from different Wards in the election to the Munnar Grama Panchayat in the year 2020. All three of them were the official candidates of the Indian National Congress (for short 'INC') with the symbol of “hand”. They were part of the coalition of United Democratic Front (for short 'the UDF'). As elected members of the Panchayat, they had given declarations before the Secretary of the Panchayat showing their association with the political party and affirmed that they belonged to the political party INC based on wh