It is settled law that the right to vote is a statutory right. It is, therefore, an accepted position that the right to vote including the right to be elected are not a part of the fundamental rights guaranteed to a citizen, but are statutory rights conferred by the statute. Once an Act creates a right, provides a remedy and the mechanism for redressal of grievances including challenge to an election by way of an election petition, it will not be possible to accept as a matter of rule that this Court would interfere in the exercise of its extraordinary jurisdiction. No doubt, the jurisdiction of a civil Court u/S. 15-A would be excluded. Such a statutory bar, however, does not include exclusion of the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226. Courts’ exercising extraordinary jurisdiction would normally bear in mind the mandate of Article 243-O of the Constitution of India. The other aspect of the matter is that remedy against the declaration of results in an election petition is by way of an election petition. Both the Constitutional provision as also statutory provision, therefore, mandate the results of any election shall not be called in question except by way of an election petition. Section 15-A further mandates that it shall be in terms of provisions of Section 15. The challenges, therefore, which can be raised in an election petition are only those as provided u/S. 15. Once the challenges are set out, it would not be open to this Court to invent new grounds of challenges for setting aside the results of an election, which have not been provided by the statute. In our
