ASHOK Vs. RAJENDRA BHAUSAHEB MULAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench has dismissed Election Petitions No.1 and 2 of 2010 filed by the appellants- petitioners in these appeals. The High Court has taken the view that although the election petitions did not allege the commission of any corrupt practice against the returned candidate (respondent herein) and although the petitions sufficiently established the authenticity of the documents relied upon by the petitioners yet the petitions were deficient inasmuch as the same did not disclose as to how the election of the returned candidate was materially affected by the alleged improper reception of the votes polled in the election. The hallmark of the order passed by the High Court is a copious reference to the decisions of this Court no matter some if not most of them had no or little relevance or application to the facts of the case before it, in the process adding to the bulk of the order under challenge. At the heart of the conclusion arrived at by the High Court is the argument that even when the election petitions contain specific averments alleging improper reception of 14 votes with the names of those who cast those votes, the same do not go further to state as to in whose favour the said votes were actually polled. This, according to the High Court, was an essential requirement for disclosure of a cause of action inasmuch as in the absence of a statement that the improperly received votes were polled and counted in favour of the returned candidate, neither the election petitions disclosed a cause of action nor was it possible to say that the result of the election was materially affected by the narrow margin of the victory notwithstanding. We cannot do better than extract from the judgment of the High Court the passages from which the reasoning underlying the conclusion drawn by the High Court can be deduced albeit with some amount of difficulty. The High Court observed:

(2.) When these special leave petitions came up for hearing before this Court on 3rd April, 2012, Mr. V.A. Bobde, learned senior counsel for the respondents, raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the petitions. It was contended by Mr. Bobde that the impugned judgment and order of the High Court dismissing the election petitions filed by the petitioners being appealable under Section 116A of the Representation of People Act, 1950, the petitioners could not maintain the special leave petitions under Article 136 of the Constitution which deserves dismissal on that ground alone. Reliance in support was placed by Mr. Bobde upon a decision of this Court in Dipak Chandra Ruhidas v. Chandan Kumar Sarkar, 2003 7 SCC 66.

(3.) Section 116A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides for appeals to this Court both on facts as also on questions of law from every order made by the High Court under Section 98 or 99 of the Act. Sub-section (2) of Section 116A prescribes a period of 30 days for filing of such appeals while proviso to sub-section (2) empowers this Court to entertain an appeal even after the expiry of the said period if the appellant shows sufficient cause for not preferring the appeal within such period.