IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) THURSDAY, THE FIRST DAY OF MAY TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 9968 of 2008 Between: 1 Balagoni Mallaiah S./o. Ramaswamya R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 2 Bommagani Yellaiah S/o. Kanukaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 3 Bommagani Tirupathi S/o.Bhumaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 4 Gadagoni Shanker S/o. Venkataiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 5 Durgam Kistaiah S/o.Mallaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 6 Gopagani Buchavva W/o. Chandaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 7 Bommagani Lachamma W/o.Narayana R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 8 Kandala Bagyavva W/o. Rajaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 9 Maveni Rajavva W/o. Rajaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 10 Bandarapu Swarupa W/o. Raju R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 11 Bommagani Surekha W/o.Ramesh R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 12 Gopagani Tirumala W/o. Babu R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 13 Bommagani Mallavva W/o.Mallaiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. 14 Bashampelli Kamalamma W/o. Shankaraiah R/o. Pandilla Village, Husnabad Mandal, Karimnagar District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 Election Officer-Cum- Proh. & Excise Inspector usnabad District. Karimnagar A.P. 2 B. Hanmanth Rao, Proh. & Excise Inspector, Husnabad District. Karimnagar , A.P. 3 Toddy Tappers Coop. Soceity, Rep. by President/ Person In - Charge (V) Pandilla (M) Husnabad, Dist. Karimnagar. 4 District Election Authority-Cum-District. Collector, Karimnagar. 5 Deputy Election Authority-Proh. & Excise Superintendent, Karimnagar. A.P. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioners:MR.K.M.MAHENDER REDDY Counsel for the Respondents: AGP FOR PROHIBITION & EXCISE The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is filed for a writ of mandamus to declare the action of respondent Nos.1 to 3 in deleting the names of the petitioners from the final eligible voters list communicated to respondent No.4 as illegal and arbitrary. The petitioners sought for a consequential direction to the respondents to include the names of the petitioners in the eligible voters list of respondent No.3 society. The petitioners claimed to be the members of respondent No.3 Toddy Tappers Cooperative Society. Respondent No.4 proposed to conduct elections to the Managing Committee of the said society and issued election programme under Rule 22-B of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Rules, 1964 (for short ‘the Rules’). According to the said programme, publication of list of eligible members to vote was scheduled for 16.04.2008 for the Second Phase with which the present writ petition is concerned and time for inviting objections was fixed up to 22.04.2008. The date for communication of final list of eligible members by the Chief Executive Officer/President of the Society was fixed as 24.04.2008 and issuance of election notification and publication of final list of voters was fixed as 29.04.2008. On the ground that their names were not included in the final list published on 29.04.2008, the petitioners filed the present writ petition. At the hearing, Sri K.M.Mahender Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that though the petitioners have been the members of the society for the last five years, their names have been illegally excluded from the voters list. Rule 22 of the Rules envisages a comprehensive procedure for conduct of elections to the cooperative societies. It provides for appointment of election officers, issuance of notification fixing election schedule, preparation of draft voters list and its finalisation and publication after considering the objections and conduct of poll and declaration of result after counting. I n Shri Sant Sadguru Janardhan Swami (Moingiri Maharaj) Sahakari Dugdha Utpadak Sanstha and another v. State of Maharashtra and others[1], the Supreme Court, while construing a provision similar to Rule 22 of the Rules, held that preparation and finalisation of voters list is an integral part of the election process and that when once election process is commenced, the High Courts would not ordinarily interfere with such process. Thus, if any dispute relating to preparation of voters list arises, the same constitutes an election dispute and the aggrieved party has the remedy of filing an election petition to question the election of the Managing Committee. Under Section 61(3) of the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, 1964, every dispute relating to, or in connection with, any election to a committee of a society shall be referred for decision to the Tribunal having jurisdiction over the place where the main office of the society is situated and its decision shall be final and that under Sub-Section (4) of Section 61 of the Act, every such dispute shall be referred only after the date of declaration of the result of such election. In view of my finding that preparation of electoral roll is an integral part of the election process and dispute relating to the same constitutes an election dispute, the only remedy available for the petitioners is to raise an election dispute under the above-mentioned provision. In view of the above, the writ petition is dismissed with liberty to the petitioners to raise an election dispute. As a sequel to dismissal of main petition, WPMP.No.13124 of 2008 filed by the petitioners for interim relief is disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J 1st MAY, 2008 Note: issue c.c. in five (5) days. B/o kvni [1] (2001) 8 SCC 509