The Patna High Court rejected a writ petition filed as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) concerning the guidelines issued by the Chief Electoral Officer of the Bihar State Election Authority regarding the election of Vyapar Mandal Cooperative Society.
Chief Justice K. A division bench of Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad stated that the election of the Board of Trade must be conducted according to the cooperative movement provisions outlined in the Bihar Co-operative Societies Act and the corresponding rules.
The bench further explained that if the committee responsible for constituting the nominations did not include the individuals claimed by the petitioner, it was the petitioner's responsibility to seek redress from the competent authorities under the Act and Rules.
The petitioner, Maharana Singh, was dissatisfied with the guidelines that stated if there was insufficient competition after the completion of the nomination process, the election would be postponed and the State Election Commission would be notified.
Maharana Singh's case revolved around the nomination process of Sonbhadra Banshi Suryapur Vyapar Mandal. Singh argued that only one person had filed a nomination for the chairman position of the Sherpur Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS), while several other PACS presidents had submitted nominations for membership in the managing committee. Although the nominations were deemed valid, the election results were not announced, and the formation of the Management Committee was pending, as per the issued guidelines.
Singh claimed to have approached the Bihar State Election Authority, the District Magistrate of Arwal, and the Block Development Officer of Sonbhadra Banshi, requesting them to declare the committee unopposed based on the valid nominations. However, the court noted that Singh filed the writ petition as a public interest litigation, identifying himself as a validly elected representative of the residents of Sonbhadra Banshi Suryapur block.
The court further observed that Singh was not among the individuals who had submitted nominations for membership in the managing committee or for the chairman position. Singh failed to include the nominated chairpersons of PACS in his petition, making it unclear whether these individuals still desired to be members of the Board of Management of the Vyapar Mandal, as per Singh's claims.
The bench concluded that there was no compelling public interest justifying the exercise of extraordinary discretionary writ jurisdiction in favor of the petitioner. Consequently, the writ petition was dismissed.
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