Allahabad High Court
Akshay Upadhyay vs Election Commission Of India And 4 Other on 15 October, 2025
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 3213 of 2025
Akshay Upadhyay
..Petitioner(s)
Versus
Election Commission of India and 4 other
..Respondent(s)
Counsel for Petitioner(s)
:
Khwaja Shamshad Ahmad
Counsel for Respondent(s)
:
Rakesh Pande (Sr.Adv.) with Ashutosh Mishra, Manish Goel (Sr.Adv.)(A.A.G.) with Rajiv Singh (S.C.), Vijay Vikram Singh
Chief Justice's Court
HON'BLE ARUN BHANSALI, CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE KSHITIJ SHAILENDRA, J.
1. This petition, purportedly in public interest, has been filed by the petitioner seeking quashing of notice/press release/letter dated 12.09.2025 issued by respondent no. 2 inviting applications from eligible electors for preparation of electoral roll for graduates and teachers constituency for Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh. Further direction has been sought to the respondents to start online and offline voter registration for 5 graduates constituencies as well as for 6 teachers constituencies.
2. The petitioner has simply indicated that he is resident of Allahabad-Jhansi graduates constituency of Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh and that he has no personal or private interest in the matter. The petition has been filed bona fide and in the interest of justice. However, other than the said averments, petitioner has failed to disclose his credentials, as contemplated by Honble Supreme Court in State of Uttaranchal Vs. Balwant Singh Chaufal and others 2010 (3) SCC 402 and provisions of Rule 1(3-A), Chapter XXII of the Allahabad High Court Rules, 1952. However, the affidavit sworn in support of the petition indicates the occupation of the petitioner as Advocate. The failure of the petitioner, who is an Advocate, to comply with the statutory provisions contained in the the High Court Rules and the law laid down by Honble Supreme Court is reflective of the seriousness with which the present petition has been filed.
3. Though the petition is liable to be dismissed on the said count alone, however, as the counsel for the petitioner has made vehement submissions, which, on examination, have been found to be baseless, the pleas, sought to be raised, are being examined.
4. Submissions have been made that the respondents, by calling for the revision of the electoral rolls for the graduates and teachers constituencies for Legislative Council, where the tenure of elected Member is coming to an end on 06.12.2026, are acting against law. Submissions have been made that under the provisions of Section 16 of Representation of the People Act, 1951, a notification for biennial election to a State Legislative Council shall not be issued more than 3 months prior to the date on which the term of office of retiring Member is due to expire and, as in the present case, the retirement date of elected Members of graduates and teachers constituencies is 06.12.2026, the notification for revision of electoral rolls could not be issued before 01.11.2026. Submissions have been made that if the qualifying date, as per the notification, is taken as 01.11.2025, those who are going to be eligible in the year 2026, would be deprived of their voting rights and, therefore, the action of the respondents in issuing the notification for revision of electoral rolls with qualifying date as 01.11.2025 is bad in law.
5. Further submissions have been made that the action of the respondents in not providing for online facility for voter registration is contrary to the assurance given to this Court in Akshay Upadhyay Vs. Election Commission of India : Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 636 of 2025, decided on 17.07.2025 and on that count also, the notification/exercise deserves to be quashed and set aside.
6. Reliance was placed on judgment of Honble Supreme Court in Election Commission of India Vs. Praful and another : (2016) 12 SCC 738 and the revised instructions dated 05.09.2016 issued by Election Commission of India filed along with the Supplementary Affidavit.
7. Learned Senior Counsel, appearing for the respondents, made submissions that the plea sought to be raised is essentially distortion of the judgment of Honble Supreme Court in the case of Election Commission of India Vs. Praful and another (supra) and the applicable provisions under Representation of the People Act, 1950 (the Act, 1950) and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 (the Rules, 1960) and, therefore, the petition deserves to be dismissed.
8. Submissions have been made that the exercise of revision of electoral rolls takes about three months, which is evident from the notification published, which is in consonance with the provisions of applicable Act and Rules. Admittedly, the tenure of the Members from the graduates and teachers constituencies would come to an end on 06.12.2026 and as in terms of Section 27(6) of the Act, 1950, the qualifying date is first day of November of the year in which the preparation or revision of electoral roll is commenced, the exercise for holding election prior to 06.12.2026 is to be undertaken with qualifying date as 01.11.2025 and, therefore the plea raised in this regard deserves to be rejected.
9. Further submissions have been made that the Election Commission has already provided for online registration for graduates and teachers constituencies, which is evident from the screenshot of the website of the Election Commission produced for perusal of the Court along with the instructions. It was prayed that the petition be dismissed.
10. We have considered the submissions made by counsel for the parties and have perused the material available on record.
11. A perusal of the press release (Annexure-1) to the petition reveals that the same has been issued by the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh on 12.09.2025 and provides for the following programme:
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12. A perusal of the above programme would reveal that the same is in consonance with the provisions of Rule 31(3), 31(4) and Rule 12 of the Rules, 1960. The press note also indicates regarding tenure of elected members coming to an end on 06.12.2026 and that the eligibility date for the preparation for de-novo revision of electoral rolls of the constituencies would be 01.11.2025.
13. The provision of Rule 31 of the Rules, 1960 deals with the rolls of graduates and teachers constituencies wherein Sub-rule (3) provides for issuance of a public notice for making applications in Form 18 or Form 19 for inclusion of the name and sub-rule (4) provides for publication of public notice in two newspapers having circulation in the constituency and republication in them twice.
14. Honble Supreme Court, while dealing with the said provisions in the case of Election Commission of India (supra), laid down as under:
11. On due consideration, we find it difficult to accept the contention advanced on behalf of the respondent-writ petitioner. Section 21 of the 1950 Act requires revision of any electoral roll to be made in accordance with procedure prescribed. The procedure prescribed for graduates/teachers constituencies is embodied in Rule 31 of 1960 Rules. Sub-Rule (4A) which deals with revision of the electoral rolls of graduates/teachers constituencies explicitly states that it is the procedure prescribed under sub-Rules (3) and (4) of Rule 31, which deals with fresh preparation of the electoral roll for such constituencies, that will also apply in the matter of revision of the electoral roll. The reason for the same is not for to seek. There could always be a constant movement of the eligible voters in such constituencies to places outside the constituencies and also the requirement of the eligibility condition so far as registration in the electoral roll of teachers constituency is concerned (teaching experience) is liable to alteration. In such circumstances, the legislature had thought it prudent to lay down that the revision of electoral rolls for graduates/teachers constituencies should involve the same process which is involved in the preparation of a fresh roll.
12. Insofar as Section 22 is concerned, we find that the requirement of an eligible voter to submit fresh application in Form 18 or 19 every six years adequately takes care of the requirements spelt out by Section 22 of the 1950 Act, namely, that an eligible voter shall not be deleted from the electoral roll without an opportunity. The said requirement, in our considered view, is adequately satisfied by engrafting in the procedure for revision under sub-Rule (4A) of Rule 31 of the 1960 Rules the same procedure as applicable to preparation of a fresh electoral roll.
15. Pursuant to the said judgment, the Election Commission of India has issued the revised instructions dated 05.09.2016, inter alia, dealing with the graduates and teachers constituencies providing for the qualifying date to be the first day of November of the year in which preparation or revision of rolls is commenced. The said date of 1st November of the year, in which the preparation or revision of the electoral rolls is commenced, has been derived from the provisions of Section 27(6) of the Act, 1950, which deals with the preparation of electoral rolls for constituencies, which reads as under:
(6) For the purposes of sub-sections (4) and (5) the qualifying date shall be the 1st day of November of the year in which the preparation or revision of the electoral roll is commenced.
16. The plea raised that as the tenure of the present elected Members would come to an end on 06.12.2026, the revision of electoral rolls with the eligibility date as 01.11.2025 is contrary to the law is baseless. Once the eligibility date is fixed as 1st day of November of the year in which the revision is to take place, if the respondents were to do the same with the eligibility date as 01.11.2026, the elections prior to coming to an end of the tenure of the elected Members on 06.12.2026 cannot take place as the procedure provided under the Act and the Rules for revision requires a three months period, as is evident from the programme published by the respondents (supra) and, therefore, the elections for constituencies, where the elected Members are to retire on 06.12.2026, revision is required to take place with eligibility date as on 01.11.2025 only and no other date. In view of above, the plea sought to be raised in this regard has no substance.
17. So far as the plea relating to the online voter registration is concerned, the petitioner, apparently, without going through the website of the Election Commission of India/making due enquiry in this regard, only on account of the order dated 17.07.2025 passed in the previous writ petition filed by the petitioner, has tried to seek direction, which is contrary to the fact situation as produced by the respondents inasmuch as the Election Commission has already provided for online registration for graduates and teachers constituencies on its website. Consequently, the plea raised in this regard also has no substance.
18. In view of the above discussion, there is no substance in the writ petition. The same is, therefore, dismissed.
(Kshitij Shailendra,J.) (Arun Bhansali,CJ.)
October 15, 2025
P.Sri.
