Chandrapati Khasim Bi vs Vinukonda Municipality

Ramesh Ranganathan, J.—The relief sought for in this Writ Petition is to declare the action of the respondents in deleting the name of the petitioner from the voter list of Vinukonda Municipality, Guntur District, as arbitrary and illegal. Section 11 of the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1965 (for short, the Act), prescribes the manner of preparation and publication of electoral roll for a municipality. Under sub-section (1) thereof, the electoral roll for a municipality shall be prepared and published by the person authorized by the State Election Commissioner in such manner by reference to such qualifying date as may be prescribed and the electoral roll for a municipality shall come into force immediately upon its publication in accordance with the Rules made by the Government in this behalf. The electoral roll for a municipality shall consist of such part of the electoral roll for the Assembly Constituency published under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, as revised or amended under the said Act, upto qualifying date as relates to municipality or any portion thereof. Section 2(32-a) of the Act defines "qualifying date", in relation to the preparation and publication of every electoral roll under the Act to mean the first day of January of the year in which it is so prepared and published.

The qualifying date for the electoral roll prepared u/s 11(1) of the Act, for the ensuing municipal elections, is the 1st January 2014. Under the proviso to Section. 11(1) of the Act, any amendment, transposition or deletion of any entries in the electoral roll, any inclusion of names in the electoral roll of the Assembly Constituencies concerned, made by the Electoral Registration Officer u/s 22 or Section 23, as the case may be, of the Representation of People Act, 1950, upto the date of election notification, for any election held under the Act, shall be carried out in the electoral roll of the municipality and any such names included shall be added to the part relating to the concerned ward. The power conferred on the Electoral Registration Officer to amend, transpose or delete any entry in the electoral roll is only prior to the date of election notification, and not thereafter.

Both Sri V.V. Prabhakar Rao, learned Standing Counsel for the State Election Commission, and Sri B.D. Maheshwar Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the first respondent, would submit that the election notification was issued, for holding elections to the Municipalities in the State, on the 3rd of March 2014. The petitioner submitted her application for correction of the electoral roll on 08.03.2014, five days after the election notification was issued.

As the Electoral Registration Officer is denuded of the power to make amendments to the electoral roll after the date of the election notification, the relief sought for in this Writ Petition cannot be granted. The Writ Petition fails and is, accordingly, dismissed. The miscellaneous petitions pending, if any, shall also stand dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs.