Electoral roll forms part of election process; High Court should usually decline Article 226 interference once elections begin.

Preparation, objection, finalisation and publication of the voters' list for elections to the managing committee of a specified co-operative society form part of the integrated election machinery under the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act and Rules, so the electoral roll is an intermediate stage of the election process. Once that process has commenced, the High Court should ordinarily not entertain a writ petition under Article 226 challenging the roll, because the statutory scheme provides an election dispute remedy before the tribunal after the result is declared, including challenge for non-compliance with the Act or Rules. The challenge to the electoral roll was therefore left to the statutory election forum and writ interference was declined.

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Issues: (i) Whether preparation of the electoral roll for election to the managing committee of a specified co-operative society is an intermediate stage of the election process; (ii) whether, once the election process has commenced, the High Court should entertain a writ petition under Article 226 challenging the electoral roll or leave the parties to the statutory election petition remedy.

Issue (i): Whether preparation of the electoral roll for election to the managing committee of a specified co-operative society is an intermediate stage of the election process.

Analysis: Chapter XIA of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 and the Maharashtra Specified Co-operative Societies Elections to Committees Rules, 1971 treat the preparation, objection, finalisation and publication of the voters' list as part of the full election machinery for specified societies. Section 144X expressly authorises rules regulating all stages of election including preparation of the voters' list, and the rules themselves provide a complete code from provisional list to final list, nominations, polling and declaration of result. The preparation of the electoral roll is therefore not a separate pre-election act but an integral step in the election process.

Conclusion: The preparation of the electoral roll is an intermediate stage in the election process.

Issue (ii): Whether, once the election process has commenced, the High Court should entertain a writ petition under Article 226 challenging the electoral roll or leave the parties to the statutory election petition remedy.

Analysis: The Act and Rules provide an election dispute mechanism before the tribunal, and Rule 81(d)(iv) permits challenge to an election on the ground of non-compliance with the Act or rules. Since objections to the electoral roll can be raised in an election petition after declaration of results, and the election machinery had already been set in motion, interference at the writ stage was unwarranted. The precedents relied upon were distinguishable on their facts and statutory context.

Conclusion: The High Court should not interfere under Article 226 and the writ petition was rightly dismissed on the ground of alternative statutory remedy.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the electoral roll could be pursued in the statutory election dispute forum after the election result, and the appeal challenging dismissal of the writ petition failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the statutory scheme treats preparation of the voters' list as part of the election process and provides an election petition remedy for non-compliance with the rules, the High Court should ordinarily decline to interfere under Article 226 once the election process has commenced.

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