N G ZELIANG Vs. AJU NEWMAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This election appeal is directed against a judgment dated May 15, 1979 of the Gauhati High Court by which the High Court accepted the election petition filed by the petitioner Aju Newmai and set aside the election of the appellant, N. C. Zeliang who had been declared elected from the No. 6 Tening Assembly Constituency of the State of Nagaland. For short, the respondent No. 1, namely, the election petitioner in the High Court, shall be hereinafter referred to as the 'petitioner' and N. C. Zeliang, who won the election, as the 'appellant'.

(2.) The elections were held in the year 1977 and were contested by the petitioner, the appellant and others. The appellant contested the election as a Congress candidate with the symbol of cow and a calf', whereas the petitioner contested on the ticket of the United Democratic Front (U. D. F.) whose election symbol was 'Cock'. The other candidates in the field were Jangkhosei and Paokholun. We are, however, not concerned with these candidates. It appears that the appellant polled 2224 votes as against the 2207 votes polled by the petitioner and thus defeated the petitioner by a margin of 17 votes, the total votes in the constituency being only 5,000. The poll took place on 18-11-1977 and the last date for filing the nomination paper was 24-10-1977.

(3.) Being aggrieved by the declaration of the appellant as having been duly elected to the Assembly, the petitioner filed an election petition on 5-1-1978 in the High Court challenging the election of the appellant on several grounds including the allegation that he had filed a false return of the expenses and had incurred much more expenses than fixed by the authorities concerned. The petitioner also alleged a number of other corrupt practices which had been committed by the appellant in the course of the election.