Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 15: Supreme Court has stayed the J&K High Court order whereby directions were issued for re-notifying the election to the Management Committee of the Ex-Servicemen Cooperative Consumer Society and issued notices to the respondents.
The stay order was issued in a Special Leave Petition filed by Krishan Chand and Others against the orders of the Division Bench of J&K High Court.
The petitioners were candidates in the election to the Management Committee of Ex-Servicemen Cooperative Consumer Society and the respondent Durga Singh was also a candidate but whose nomination papers were rejected by the Returning Officer.
The election authority notified the election to the Management Board of the Society by notification dated August 26, 2016 and appointed the Block Development Officer, Udhampur as Returning Officer. After the scrutiny of the nominations, the RO rejected the nominations of five candidates including that of Durga Singh on the grounds that they were getting honorarium from the institution and being ineligible to contest the election as per the Society Rules and Bye-Laws.
Being aggrieved by the rejection of the nomination papers, Durga Singh filed a Revision Petition before the J&K Special Tribunal, which observed that the being an election dispute the issue falls within the exclusive domain of Registrar Cooperative Society.
Aggrieved by the order of Tribunal, Durga Singh filed a writ petition before the Single Judge of the High Court, who dismissed the writ petition upholding the Tribunal order. Being aggrieved by the disposal of writ petition by the Single Judge, Durga Singh filed LPA before the Division Bench, which directed the Election Authority to hold fresh elections and declare that the Durga Singh despite being the treasurer was not disqualified from contesting the election and that the nomination papers were wrongly rejected.
Krishan Chand and others thereafter filed a Review Petition before the DB, which came to be dismissed and accordingly SLP was filed before the Supreme Court with the prayer that Division Bench committed gross error of law by ignoring the specific provisions in the J&K Cooperative Societies Act, 1989 and interfering in the election process by stepping into the shoes of the Registrar, who had the sole jurisdiction and was competent to decide the election dispute.
After hearing Advocate Keshav Thakur for the petitioners, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising the Chief Justice, Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the respondents and directed that in the meanwhile there shall be stay of re-notification of the election.
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