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13. A person shall be qualified for election as a councilor only if his name appears on the electoral roll for the municipality".

10. I pause now to state what these sections in substance say. The electoral roll for the Municipal elections is the same as that prepared for the elections to the Andhra Pradesh for the elections to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in so far as it comprises the area of the Municipality concerned, and every person who appears in the electoral roll so published shall so long as it remains in force, be entitled to vote at an election. The election authority may after making such enquiry as it thinks fit, correct any clerical error in the electoral roll for the municipality. A person of unsound mind and so declared by a competent court shall not be entitled to vote at any election to a council. A person who is in the electoral roll for the Municipality could also stand for the council. In other words, a person competent to vote at an election for the Legislative Assembly of the State is entitled to vote at an election to the Municipal Council. The Municipal Act itself does not enact any provision as to the qualifications as a voter at an election to the State Legislative Assembly. This necessarily takes me on to the qualifications of voters under the Representation of the People Act.

24. Now, let us consult the statutory rules made in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 326 of the Municipal Act for decision of the election disputes under the Act. Rule 10 (c) provides inter alia that if in the opinion of the Election Tribunal the result of ht election has been materially affected by any irregularity in respect of a nomination paper or by the improper reception or refusal of a nomination paper or vote or by any non-compliance with the provisions of the Act or the rules made thereunder the election of such returned candidate shall be void. What does this provision mean in the present context? The Municipal Act adopted the voters at an election for the Legislative Assembly as voters at an election for the Municipal Council. The voters at an election for the State Assembly shall not be less than 21 years of age. It necessarily means that by adopting the electoral rolls for the voters at an Assembly election, the voters at a Municipal Council election shall not be under 21 years of age on the qualifying date. If persons who were under-aged had voted, then clearly the result of the election would have been materially affected by non-compliance with the provisions of the Act.

26. A scrutiny of the relevant provision leaves me in no doubt that a person who is under-aged according to the Constitution cannot be a voter at an Assembly election and at the Municipal election as well as the Municipal Act adopted the electoral rolls at an Assembly election. The contention of Sri Babul Reddy results in a manifest anomaly that in spite of the express interdiction by the Constitution which is transcendent law, a person who is under-aged although he cannot vote at an Assembly election, could still be competent to a vote at a Municipal election. It is against the express provisions of the Municipal Act. A constitutional disability to be a voter can be reissued and decided under section 100 of the R. P. Act, 1951. It cannot be said that section 30 of the R. P. Act, 1950 would stand in the way of such a decision under section 100 of the same Act. The two provisions have to be read harmoniously and certainly not as inconsistent with each other.

It is not necessary that qualifications or disqualifications should be enacted under the Municipal Act as well. They are the same as enacted under the R. P. Act of 1950, as by adopting the electoral roll of the voters at an Assembly election, it had adopted their qualifications and disqualifications as well. It is not also necessary that the Rules under the Municipal Act should expressly adopt the words of section 100 of the R. P. Act, 1951, when it is clear that the Municipal Act had adopted the electoral rolls at an Assembly election with the result that one who cannot be a voter for an Assembly cannot vote at the Municipal Election. The finality contemplated by section 62 of the R. P. Act, 1951, is not finality so as to exclude the fundamental incapacity of a voter to vote at an Assembly election and consequently at a Municipal election. If in spite of the incapacity to vote a person is registered as a voter, does it mean that by an entry in the register a right to vote could be conferred contrary to the mandate of the Constitution. This could never have been nor could be. The finality of the registry should be confined to the authorities who are to prepare the electoral rolls and cannot operate as a bar to the authority expressly constituted for election disputes to go into the question of constitutional disabilities of voters.