Nomination Of A Candidate For Elections Cannot Be Rejected Due To Immaterial Defects: Kerala High Court Reiterates

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday reiterated that the nomination of a candidate for elections cannot be rejected on trivial grounds and that if there is substantial compliance, the nomination paper ought to be accepted.

A single bench of Justice Viju Abraham was considering the plea of an aspiring candidate who had filed for nomination for election to the Senate and Academic Council of the Cochin University. The petitioner wished to contest the election from the constituency of “Presidents of all the registered Trade Unions in the State”. Two members to the Cochin University Senate are usually selected by registered Trade Unions in the state, from among themselves.

The Petitioner challenged the rejection of his nomination by the Registrar of the Cochin University. According to the petitioner, he had submitted his nomination before the deadline. His nomination was rejected only on the ground of overwriting in his form.

It was the case of the petitioner that his nomination was turned down for trivial reasons as it was motivated by political interests. Hyper technical grounds were cited to reject his nomination only so that the position would remain vacant and bye elections could be conducted later on, he argued.

The court relied on several decisions of the court including Santhosh v. Joint Registrar reported in 1994 (2) KLT 141 where it was held that as ‘contesting at an election is very valuable right’, nominations must not be rejected merely on immaterial defects.

“a pragmatic and common sense view has to be taken and technicalities ought not to prevail when otherwise the nominations are without flaw and valid, as in this case. The attempt should be to enable the member to contest, instead of ejecting him at the threshold on the basis of immaterial inconsequential defects or mistakes in the nomination paper. “ the court had observed in the above case.

The court in the matter at hand held that as the entries in nomination paper of the petitioner could be clearly read and all the information provided could be verified from the electoral roll, there was no substantial ground to reject his nomination. The Registrar of the Cochin University was accordingly directed to accept the petitioner’s nomination.

Case Tile: Vadekkevila Sasi V Cochin University Of Science & Technology and Others

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Ker) 127

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