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Shaji K. Joseph v. V. Viswanath and Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2016 INSC 1163Decided 22 Feb 2016
Civil Appeal No.1629 of 2016, arising out of SLP (C) No.22902 of 2011
Justice Anil R. Dave · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel

Background

Respondent no.1 wanted to contest an election to the Dental Council of India under the Dentists Act, 1948, but his nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer because his name was not entered in Part A of the State register of dentists. He challenged the rejection before the Kerala High Court, whose Single Judge set aside the rejection and ordered the election to be conducted afresh including his name; a Division Bench upheld that order on appeal. The appellant (a candidate in the election) then appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that once the election process had begun, the High Court should not have entertained the dispute at all, since the Dentists Act and its Election Regulations provide that election disputes must be referred to the Central Government, whose decision is final.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the appellant, relying on settled precedent (including N.P. Ponnuswami v. Returning Officer, Namakkal) that once an election process has commenced, courts should generally not interfere with it: an aggrieved candidate's remedy lies in the statutory post-election dispute mechanism, here Section 5 of the Dentists Act read with Regulation 20, under which the Central Government decides election disputes. The Court held the High Court erred in intervening mid-process, set aside the High Court's judgment, and directed that the election result be published. It kept open Respondent no.1's right to approach the Central Government under Section 5 within four weeks, with no limitation objection to be raised against him for that delay, and allowed the appeal with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Where a statute provides a specific post-election forum (here, a reference to the Central Government) to resolve election disputes, courts will generally decline to interfere with an election already in progress: a candidate's grievance about eligibility or nomination is ordinarily to be pursued through that statutory mechanism after the election, not by halting the process through a writ petition.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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