Twelve numberinations were filed for the general seat and three for the reserved seat.
While he denied carrying or companyveying voters in a motor truck to the polling station on the date of the poll, he admitted that his brother Anjani Kumar and another Bhayya who lived in his village had trucks which were in use during the election and attempted to explain that those trucks were possibly hired by the Government to carry ballot boxes.
1 Baboo Lal Udaniya, 2 Deep Narain, and 3 Rajkishore Shukla, were wrongly rejected and the rejection materially affected the result of the election.
Thereupon two election petitions were filed, both on the 24th April, 1952, companytesting the validity of the election.
W. 79 said as follows I saw Shri Achutanand carrying voters to that station in motor truck.
In the other petition, in addition to the findings against the appellant in respect of issues companyresponding to these three, a further issue relating to the wrongful rejection of numberination papers and the election being materially affected thereby, was found against the appellant.
The voters were brought by Achutanand himself as well as by other Socialist Party workers.
These villages were within a mile from Alhoua.
They were as follows Baboo Lal Udaniya was lawyer for the State Railway under the terms of a standard agreement marked before the Tribunal as Ex.
It appears also from the record that on 5 1 1953, a number of interrogatories were served on the appellant on behalf of the election petitioners out of which the following may be numbericed.
P. W. 73 is the Proprietor of Kumar Printing Works.
Common evidence was taken by companysent of parties in both these petitions.
Evidence was given on behalf of the petitioners in the election petition that the voters were being carried from some of the villages in the companystituency to the polling station in motor trucks and that those trucks were of Achutanand who stood as a candidate for the Socialist Party for the local Assembly seat of the same companystituency, for which the poll took place simultaneously in the same polling stations.
P 3 is a pamphlet which, as the election petition shows, was an enclosure to that petition itself, when filed before the Election Commission.
Out of the three for the reserved seat, he declared only one, namely, that of one Randaman Singh, to be valid and rejected the rest.
The attack on this finding arrived at by the Tribunal is virtually the same as that which related to the evidence companynected with the printing and distribution of Ex.
Accordingly the polling was held for the remaining three candidates in the various polling stations of the companystituency on dates between the 11th and 19th January, 1952.
I have seen Achutanand and his workers wearing red caps going in that truck.
The only companymon question therefore number raised in both the appeals is as to the companyrectness of the Tribunals order in each of the election petitions setting aside the appellants election.
Baboo Lal Udaniya, Deep Narain and Rajkishore Shukla, were erroneous in fact and in law and that as a result thereof the election it was alleged was materially affected.
There is number question raised before us as to the companyrectness of the order of the Election Tribunal in so far as it upheld the election of the reserved seat candidate and rejected the relief asked for that Ram Ratan Gupta be declared elected.
Another witness on behalf of the appellant, R. W. 18, said as follows I am acquainted with the workers of the Socialist Party in my companystituency.
These three candidates obtained votes as follows Bhagwan Datt Sastri 71, 589 Ram Ratan Gupta 56, 585 Puranmal 34, 990 Consequently Bhagwan Datt Shastri hereinafter referred to as the appellant was declared elected, and the same was published in the Gazette dated the 14th February, 1952.
W. 75 said I canvassed for Shri Achutanand who was Socialist candidate for Assembly and for Sri Bhagwan Dutt Shastri who was Socialist candidate for House of People.
Such distribution was by various red capped workers who were members of the Socialist Party.
The relief asked for was the setting aside of the election of the appellant on various grounds set out therein and the declaration of Ram Ratan Gupta as the validly elected candidate.
Was number Bharosa Raj Gond of village Asari, district Shahdol a member of the Socialist Party and your worker in that area?
Achutanand himself as R. W. 21 stated as follows In my companystituency canvassing and propaganda used to be carried on party lines and number for any individual candidates.
The Returning Officer, after scrutiny, held only five out of the twelve numberinations to the general seat to be valid and rejected the rest.
Bhagwan Datt Shastri was a candidate for Parliamentary seat I saw Shri Achutanand and his workers sitting in that truck.
The second petition Election Petition No.
The name of the companystituency was shown as Shahdol Sidhi Mauganj Constituency instead of as Shahdol Sidhi Districts and Mauganj Tahsil of Rewa District as specified in the Delimitation Order.
Out of the five candidates whose numberinations for the general seat were held valid, two subsequently withdrew in time.
The first Election Petition No.
Shri Achutanand had got two motor trucks .
As a result of all these findings, the election of the appellant was set aside.
10, 11, 12 and 73.
Was number Thakurdin a candidate officially set up by the Socialist Party from Beohari companystituency for the Vindhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly?
Leaflets like Ex.
a Were number Dhanukram and Devdutta Ram of Dhureta and Sanwalia Ram of Sheorajpur Tehsil Mauganj members of the Socialist Party and your workers in that Tehsil?
Since at this stage there is only one companymon question arising in both the appeals it is companyvenient to treat both the appeals together by a companymon judgment.
that Randaman Singh was to be unseated.
28, 47, 48, 50, 51, 64, 66, 67, 73 and P. W. 73 who has spoken to Ex.
They were working for the party candidate as such and number for any one individually.
1960 AIR SC 200 The Judgment was delivered by JAGANNADHADAS JAGANNADHADAS, J. These are two appeals by special leave against two orders of the Election Tribunal, Vindhya Pradesh at Rewa, dated 26 4 1954 and 31 5 1954, which arise out of the election to the House of People Lok Sabha from Shahdol Sidhi companystituency of Vindhya Pradesh.
It was on the basis of this allegation that the relief asked for in this petition was number merely to set aside the election of the appellant but also for the setting aside of the entire election which would result in the unseating even of the reserved seat candidate who was declared elected unopposed.
The appellant having stood as a candidate on the ticket of the Socialist Party, they were virtually agents of the appellant.
But there was added another substantial ground.
Did they number issue the pamphlet printed by Kumar Printing Works, Allahabad, and filed with the petition and circulated the same amongst electors To these questions the following answers were given on the 13th January, 1953.
The motor truck used to stop near the polling booth in the school every time.
As a result thereof the said Randaman Singh was declared elected without companytest to the reserved seat.
Those trucks were of Shri Achutanand a candidate of Socialist Party who stood for Assembly seats.
As regards the companyrupt practices based on Exs.
In this petition the grounds alleged against the appellants election were partly the same as those which were set out in the earlier petition.
The numberination of Rajkishore Shukla was defective as follows The numberination paper was incomplete when the candidate signed it, the proposer and seconder having signed it later.
on the 11th January, 1952 one of the polling dates a motor truck belonging to Achutanand brought electors from the villages of Amalak and Jurmaniya to Alhua polling station and that the electors were so brought by Achutanand of village Dhera and his companyworkers .
The pamphlet itself purports to have been signed by three individuals, Sukh Sen Raj Gond, Thakur Din Raj Gond, Bharosa Raj Gond, and shows on the face of it Kumar Printing Works, Daraganj, Prayag, as the printers.
The Tribunal took all this evidence into companysideration and came to a definite finding that motor trucks belonging to Achutanand were used on the polling date for the companyveyance of electors to the polling booth.
The numberination paper of Deep Narain companytained the following defect.
He did so 3 or 4 times.
that Ram Ratan Gupta be declared elected was rejected as also the additional relief asked for in the second petition, viz.,
This judgment accordingly disposes of both the appeals.
Thus the appellant was guilty of the major companyrupt practice of undue influence under proviso a i and ii of S. 123 2 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 Act XLIII of 1951 hereinafter referred to as the Act .
185 of 1952 was filed by four voters of the companystituency.
a Was number a leaflet entitled Submission to the Rajgonds issued by Sukhsen, Thakurdin and Bharosa above said freely circulated amongst Gond tribe in Shahdol district?
Quite a large number of issues were raised in each of the petitions, some of which were companymon.
Evidence was also given that these trucks belong to the said candidate Achutanand himself.
But only three of the issues in the first petition relating, respectively, to 1 undue influence, 2 use of vehicles for carrying voters to the polling station, and 3 appeal to voters on grounds of caste, race, companymunity or religion, were found against the appellant.
Shastriji was a candidate for the Socialist Party.
P 3 were circulated in numerous villages of Shahdol district to the effect that every member belonging to the Gond companymunity who would number vote for the appellant would be ex communicated.
On 11 1 1952 one of the polling dates quite a number of voters from two villages in the companystituency were brought to one of the polling stations by the use of one motor truck which belonged to Achutanand, a Socialist Party candidate for the same companystituency of the State Legislative Assembly, polling for which also was going on simultaneously at the various polling stations.
The additional relief asked for in the first petition, viz.,
P 6, the later portion of which companytained a clear and systematic appeal to the voters to vote or refrain from voting on grounds of caste, race, companymunity or religion and companytained a threat of injury, were widely distributed in the entire district of Sidhi and Tahasil of Mauganj in Rewa district by workers of the Socialist Party, who were virtually in the position of agents of the appellant.
A good many out of those issues were found in favour of the appellant.
This was that out of the numberinations for the general seat which were rejected as being invalid on scrutiny by the Returning Officer, the rejections of the numberinations of three candidates, viz.,
The findings of the Election Tribunal which resulted in the election of the appellant being set aside are the following.
Leaflets like Ex.
As a result, the Election Tribunal maintained the election of the reserved seat candidate but ordered a fresh election in the companystituency for the general seat.
a Is it number a fact Sukhsen, Thakurdin and Bharosa Rajgonds were your workers and canvassers in the district of Shahdol?
Respondent No.
Was number Sukhsen a candidate for the Vindhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Pushaprajgarh and Kotma companystituencies, officially set up by the Socialist Party, whose numberinations were rejected?
P. W. 68 stated as follows I saw voters being carried from my tola neighbouring to Jurmaneya to the polling station Alhua in motor trucks.
There were about 25 to 30 men of public carried in each trip including Shri Achutanand.
Achutanand himself has been examined as R. W. 21.
The men carried in the truck were of villages Jurmaniya, Salwa and Amullakpur.
