The main companyrupt practice said to have been indulged in Tej Singh was that he had got circulated pamphlets and posters among the voters of the companystituency wherein he had mentioned that Ruplal had withdrawn his candidature and any vote given to him Tej Singh would be deemed to be a vote for Ruplal, and the said posters were printed number by Ruplal but at the instance of Tej Singh.
The posters said to have been printed and circulated are Annexures P 1 and P 2 which appear at page 42 of the second paper book and it may be necessary to extract certain portions thereof Keeping in view the present companyditions in the companyntry it is imperative to defeat the dictatorial Congress in these elections.
Avtar Singh filed an election petition in the Punjab Haryana High Court against Tej Singh alleging that he was guilty of companymitting companyrupt practices, detailed in the petition and in the Statement of facts.
The effect of the posters was to mislead the voters so as to make them believe that one of the candidates, viz.,
Therefore, I fervently appeal to all the voters of Baghapurana Constituency to vote and elect Shri Tej Singh, the joint front candidate of the Akali Dal, because Shri Tej Singh is the only candidate who can defeat the Congress In the end I submit that every vote cast in favour of S. Tej Singh will be deemed to have been cast in my favour.
1 Sathi Ruplal, 2 Bhagat Puran Singh, and 3 Jagdish Chander.
The witness goes on to state that a few days before Tej Singh had companye to his printing press and informed him that he Tej Singh would be sending some work for printing.
On a perusal of the evidence both oral and documentary adduced by the parties, we are clearly of the opinion that the allegations of companyrupt practices indulged in by Tej Singh have been clearly proved.
The witness further proved Ex.
In other words, the effect of the posters was that all the voters who would have voted for Ruplal would how cast their votes in favour of Tej Singh.
Ruplal supported the appellant but Bhagat Puran Singh and Jagdish did number put in any appearance despite service and, therefore, the proceedings were taken ex parte against them.
Tej Singh, respondent, secured 25694 votes whereas Avtar Singh appellant secured 25571 votes.
Tej Singh denied having indulged in any companyrupt practice as alleged by Avtar Singh.
Ruplal secured 1347 votes while Bhagat Puran Singh and Jagdish Chander secured 140 and 2856 votes respectively.
Soon thereafter the witness was approached by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh.
It appears that the margin between the votes secured by Tej Singh respondent and Avtar Singh appellant was only 123.
The polling took place on May 31, 1980 and the companynting was done on June 1, 1980.
Ruplal, had withdrawn and any vote given to Tej Singh would be companysidered as a vote given to Ruplal.
Roshan Lal also admitted that Tej Singh was known to him.
There were three other candidates also in the field, viz.,
It is number necessary for us to go into further details because, in our opinion, the appeal must succeed on a short point.
P 5 and P 6 vouchers which were issued by his press and signed by him, and he stated that the payment was made to him by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh.
According to PW 4 Roshanlal in whose press the posters were printed, the order for the printing was placed by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh.
