Case: Ashok Kumar Mishra &amp; Anr Vs. Collector, Raipur &amp; Ors

go into other questions raised before us. 6. The Collector published the notice under Rule 4(1) of the Rules on September 30, 1978 and also called upon interested persons to prefer claims and/or objections thereto within a period of 20 days. In paragraph 7 of the notice, it was mentioned that claims and objections received beyond the prescribed period would not be considered. The period prescribed for preferring claims and objections under Rule 4(3) was 30 days. It is not the case of the petitioners that they did not know immediately after the publication of such notice that in the said notice a period of 20 days had been mentioned in its preamble as the period within the claims and objections could be preferred and in paragraph 7 thereof it had been stated that any such claim or objection filed beyond the prescribed period was liable to be rejected. If they felt that the said notice suffered from any illegality, they could have brought it to the notice of the Collector immediately thereafter. It was open to them to move the State Government under Rule 6 of the Rules to make an order directing the Collector to follow the provisions governing the preparation of the electoral roll. It was also open to them to file a writ petition immediately after the publication of the said notice questioning its legality. None of the above courses was adopted by the petitioners. Persons whose claims were rejected could have filed an appeal under Rule 5 before the Collector. No such appeal was presented. The final electoral roll was published on November 16, 1978. It was notified that the nominations could be filed on and after November 25, 1978 and the poll, if necessary, would take place on December 31, 1978. After November 25, 1978, a large number of nominations were received by the Returning Officer. It was only on December 5, 1978 for the first time that a letter was addressed by the petitioner 6 to the Collector drawing his attention to the error that had crept into the notice published under Rule 4(1) of the Rules. By that time, the nominations had all been received. The final list of candidates for the election with their symbols was published on December 20, 1978. The writ petition itself was filed on December 28, 1978 when the poll had taken place on December 31, 1978. When the petition came up for order on December 29, 1978, it had to be adjourned to December 30, 1978 at the request of the counsel for the petitioners. No satisfactory explanation was given in the course of the petition by the petitioners as to why they delayed the filing of the petition till December 28, 1978, even though they knew that there was an error in the notice under Rule 4(1) of the Rules in the month of October, 1978 more than two months before the date on which it was filed. It was, however, argued before us relying upon a news item which had appeared in a daily called Nav Bharat dated October 21, 1978 in which there was a reference to a statement made by the Minister for Local Self Government of Madhya Pradesh regarding the irregularity in the division of Raipur town into different wards for purposes of election. It was also stated therein that in the course of the discussion with the press-reporters on that day, the Minister had stated that he had directed the Commissioner, Raipur Division, Raipur that the date for inclusion of names in the electoral roll could be extended if the election date was not affected. There was a further reference to dates of election to Bilaspur Municipal Committee having been adjourned twice before. It is difficult to place any reliance on the above news item for the purpose of concluding that the Collector, Raipur had been informed about the defect in the notice issued under Rule 4(1) of the Rules by October 21, 1978. The other documents produced along with the writ petition referred to omission of certain names from the electoral roll. They do not show that any of the petitioners had raised any objection with regard to the date within which the claims and objections could be preferred to the electoral roll mentioned in the notice. We have, therefore, to proceed on the basis that it was only on December 5, 1978 for the first time that the attention of the Collector was drawn to the said error and that the writ petition itself was presented on December 28, 1978. No satisfactory reason for the delay was set out in the petition. 7. It is well settled that the power of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution to issue an appropriate writ is discretionary and if the High Court finds that there is no satisfactory explanation for the inordinate delay, it may reject the petition if it finds that the issue of writ will lead to public inconvenience and interference with rights of others. This rule applies also to a case in which the validity of an election to a local authority is challenged. The question whether in a given case the delay involved is such that it disentitles a person to relief under Article 226 is a matter within the discretion of the High Court which as in all matters of discretion has to exercise it judiciously and reasonably having regard to the surrounding circumstances. 8. We are not, therefore, impressed by the argument that the petitioners were entitled to the issue of the writ prayed for as of right and the delay in filing the petition should have been ignored. 9. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, we are of the view that the writ petition was rightly dismissed by the High Court as there was no satisfactory explanation for the delay in preferring it. We, therefore, find it unnecessary to deal with the other points urged before us.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]7. It is well settled that the power of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution to issue an appropriate writ is discretionary and if the High Court finds that there is no satisfactory explanation for the inordinate delay, it may reject the petition if it finds that the issue of writ will lead to public inconvenience and interference with rights of others. This rule applies also to a case in which the validity of an election to a local authority is challenged.The question whether in a given case the delay involved is such that it disentitles a person to relief under Article 226is a matter within the discretion of the High Court which as in all matters of discretion has to exercise it judiciously and reasonably having regard to the surrounding circumstances8. We are not, therefore, impressed by the argument that the petitioners were entitled to the issue of the writ prayed for as of right and the delay in filing the petition should have been ignored9. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case, we are of the view that the writ petition was rightly dismissed by the High Court as there was no satisfactory explanation for the delay in preferring it. We, therefore, find it unnecessary to deal with the other points urged before us.