IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.7929 of 2019 ======================================================

1. Kanhaiya Prasad S/o Late Kishun Prasad, Resident of Shop No. A-2 Bazar Samiti, P.S. - Ahiyapur, District-Muzaffarpur.

2. Kumod Kumar Chaudhary, S/o Village-Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, Resident of Shop No. A-3 Bazar Samiti, P.S. - Ahiyapur, District-Muzaffarpur.

3. Munna Chaudhary, S/o Ashok Chaudhary Resident of Shop No. A-5 Bazar Samiti, P.S. Ahiyapur, District-Muzaffarpur.

4. Neeraj Kumar S/o Sri Vijay Chaudhary Resident of Shop No. A-3 Bazar Samiti, P.S. - Ahiyapur, District-Muzaffarpur.

5. Vijay Kumar Chaudhary S/o Bhagwan Chaudhary Resident of 78A Pankar Market, P.S. - Town, District-Muzaffarpur.

... ... Petitioner/s Versus

1. The Union Of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Law, Govt. of India, New Delhi.

2. The Election Commissioner of India, New Delhi.

3. The Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, Patna

4. The State Election Commission, Bihar, Patna

5. The State of Bihar, Through the Principal Secretary, Home Department, Govt. of Bihar, Patna

6. The Collector, Muzaffarpur.

... ... Respondent/s ======================================================

Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Deo Prakash Singh, Advocate For the Respondent/s : Mr. Md. N.H. Khan, SC-1 Mr. Md. Harun Quareshi, AC to SC-01 For the ECI : Mr. Siddhartha Prasad, Advocate For the UOI : Mr. Arvind Kumar, CGC For the SEC : Mr. Girish Pandey, Advocate ======================================================

CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV ROY ORAL ORDER

13 08-01-2026 Heard Mr. Deo Prakash Singh, learned counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Siddhartha Prasad representing the Election Commission of India (for brevity ‘the ECI’), Mr. Girish Pandey, learned counsel for the State Election Commission (for brevity ‘the SEC’) as also the State, Mr. Md. Harun Quareshi. 2. The present petition has been preferred for the following relief(s):

“A writ in the nature of certiorari or any other writ or order or direction be issued quashing memo no. 664 dated-3.9.2016 whereby and whereunder he refused to consider grievance of petitioner's with regard to problems being faced due to frequent requisitions of their shops for purpose of counting in elections and thereby direct the authorities to construct a permanent place where the counting of election should be performed without disturbing the business persons having their shop at Bazar samiti, Muzaffarpur in legal way.

ii. during the pendency of this writ application interim order be passed so that the authority may not disturb the petitioners.”

3. The petitioners own godown in the Ahiyapur Agriculture Produce Market Committee, Muzaffarpur and are aggrieved by the regular directions issued by the respondents whenever an election approach to vacate the premises for smooth conduct of the elections.

4. Though the learned counsel for the petitioners submit that at the onset of every election, such exercise take place, it has been disputed by the learned counsels representing ‘the ECI as also ‘the SEC’ submitting that the same is requisitioned only for the purpose of Assembly and Parliamentary Elections.

5. Learned counsel representing ‘the ECI’ has taken this Court to Sections 160 and 161 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (henceforth for short ‘the Act’) which read as follows:

“160. Requisitioning of premises, vehicles, etc., for election purposes.—(1) If it appears to the State Government that in connection with an election held within the State—

22[(a) any premises are needed or are likely to be needed for the purpose of being used as polling stations, for counting, for storage of ballot boxes, voting machines (including voter verifiable paper audit trail) and poll related material after a poll has been taken, accommodation for security forces and polling personnel; or]

(b) any vehicle, vessel or animal is needed or is likely to be needed for the purpose of transport of ballot boxes to or from any polling st