Court emphasized democratic principles and required clarity in election nomination procedures to avoid future confusion.

JUDGMENT

This writ petition is filed seeking the following reliefs:

“1. Issue a writ of Certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction setting aside Ext. P3 and all action taken by the 4th respondent pursuant thereto.

2. Issue a writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction commanding the 4th respondent to accept nominations for the standing committee election from the elected members of the 5th respondent Grama Panchayat including petitioners 1 to 3 at the conference hall of the 5th respondent Grama Panchayat before 1045 hours on 07/01/2026 for the conduct of meeting for the standing committee election based on Ext. P8.

3. Issue any other appropriate writ, order, or direction, as the petitioner may seek and this Hon’ble Court deems fit, in the facts and circumstances of the case and allow this petition with all costs.

AND

4. Dispense with the filing of the translation of vernacular documents.”

[SIC]

2. When this writ petition came up for consideration before this Court on 07.01.202, this Court passed the following orders:

“Admit. The learned Government Pleader takes notice for respondents 1 and 3. The learned Standing Counsel for the Panchayat takes notice for respondents 5 and 6. The learned Standing Counsel for the Election Commission takes notice for respondents 2 and 4.

2. The main prayer in the writ petition is to issue a direction to the 4th respondent to accept the nomination for the Standing Committee Election from the elected members of the 5^th respondent Grama Panchayat, including petitioners 1 to 3, which is scheduled on 07.01.2026 at 11 a.m. The election to the Standing Committee of the Kanjirapally Grama Panchayat was conducted, in which the United Democratic Front (UDF) secured 13 seats, Left Democratic Front (LDF) secured 10 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 1 seat. Based on the majority, the President and Vice President election is over and petitioners 4 and 5 are elected as the President and the Vice President. The notice was issued for conducting the election to the Standing Committees as evident by Ext.P3. The 2nd paragraph of the Ext.P3 is extracted herebelow:

"താങ്കൾ (പ്രസിഡന്റ് വൈ(cid:12)സ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് ഒഴികെ(cid:16)) പ്രസ്തു ത സ്ഥാനത്തേ(cid:21)യ്ക്ക് മത്സരിയ്ക്കാൻ ഉത്തേ(cid:28)ശിക്കുന്നുകെ(cid:12)ങ്കിൽ 05/01/2026 തീയതിയിൽ രാ(cid:12)ികെ# 10.45 ന് മുമ്പായി

നാമനിർത്തേ(cid:28)ശപത്രി(cid:16)

(cid:12)രണാധി(cid:16)ാരിയ്ക്ക്സമർപ്പിത്തേ,ണ്ടതാണ്.”

3. In Ext.P3, it is also stated that the election will be conducted in the conference hall of the Kanjirappally Grama Panchayat on 05.01.2026 at 11 a.m. The definite case of the petitioners is that they were waiting in the conference hall at Kanjirappally Grama Panchayat for submitting their nominations. It is also the definite case of the petitioners that in Ext.P3 notice it is not mentioned by the Returning Officer that she will be available in her Office between 10 a.m. and 10.45 a.m. on 05.01.2026 for accepting the nominations. Since there is nothing in Ext.P3 to show that the nomination papers will be collected from the Office of the Returning Officer, the petitioners were bonafide believed that the Returning Officer will be available in the conference hall of the Grama Panchayat and they were waiting from 10 O’clock onwards is the submission. At 10.50 a.m., the Returning Officer reached the conference hall and the petitioners attempted to submit the nomination papers. But the Returning Officer refused to accept the nominations saying that the time to submit the nomination is 10.45 a.m. and the petitioners tried to submit the nominations only at 10.50 a.m. The petitioners immediately submitted Ext.P4 representation be