Civil Writ Petition No. 11577 of 2009 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 11577 of 2009 Date of Decision: 04.08.2009 Amrit Lal Baveja ..Petitioner Versus Election Commission of India and others ..Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.S.THAKUR,CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA 1.Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present : Mr. Sunil Chadha, Advocate for the petitioner ***** T.S.Thakur, C.J. (Oral) This petition purports to have been filed in public interest. The grievance of the petitioner entirely relates to certain errors and discrepancies that have crept in the electoral rolls prepared by the officers concerned for the Gurgaon assembly constituency. On that premise, the petitioner has prayed for a mandamus directing the respondents to prepare a fresh electoral roll for Gurgaon assembly segment(Haryana) after removing the alleged discrepancies and errors. Civil Writ Petition No. 11577 of 2009 [2] We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and perused the record. Section 22 of The Representation of the People Act, 1950 (for short 'the Act') deals with correction of entries in electoral rolls and inter-alia provides that if Electoral Registration Officer for a constituency is satisfied after such enquiry as he may think fit that any entry in the electoral roll is erroneous and/or defective in any particular, he shall subject to such general or special direction, if any, as may be given by the Election Commission in that behalf, amend, transpose or delete the entry. The petitioner and any one aggrieved of any such erroneous or defective entry in the electoral rolls of the constituency, therefore, has the option of having the same corrected by approaching the Electoral Registration Officer concerned. The petitioner has not admittedly done so. Learned counsel for the petitioner, however, contended that a representation has been made to the Chief Election Officer and to the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, copies whereof have been produced as Annexures P-2 and P- 3 to the petition, in which the errors and defects in the entries referred to therein have been pointed out and which errors and defects the respondents ought to have corrected. We have gone through the representations but are of the opinion that the same have not been addressed to the Authority competent to exercise the power under Section 22 of the Act. None of the two representations is addressed to the Electoral Registration Officer who alone has the authority to pass an order under Section 22 of the Act. It is noteworthy that an order passed by the Electoral Registration Officer under Section 22 of the Act is Civil Writ Petition No. 11577 of 2009 [3] appealable before the Chief Electoral Officer under Section 24 of the Act. In the circumstances, instead of addressing representations to the authorities who may not be otherwise competent to exercise power under Section 22 of the Act, the petitioner ought to have approached the Electoral Registration Officer for an appropriate direction. In the absence of any such representation, the petitioner's grievance appears to be wholly misplaced and premature. In the result, this petition fails and is hereby dismissed with liberty to the petitioner to approach the Electoral Registration Officer, Gurgaon for correction of any erroneous or defective entry which the petitioner may point out in electoral rolls for the said constituency. We hope and trust that the Electoral Registration Officer would on receipt of any such representation examine the same in accordance with the established procedure and the provisions of Section 22 of the Act referred to above and pass orders on the same as expeditiously as possible. No costs. (T.S.THAKUR) CHIEF JUSTICE (KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA) JUDGE 04.08.2009 'ravinder'