T A AHAMMED KABEER Vs. A A AZEEZ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . Unsuccessful as a candidate and also as an election petitioner, the appellant is in appeal, exercising his statutory right of appeal under section 116A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (hereinafter the Act', for short) against the decision of the High Court dismissing his election petition.

(2.) . Elections for the Kerala Legislative Assembly seat from no. 125 Eravipuram Legislative Assembly Constituency were held on 10.5.2001. There were five candidates in the fray including the appellant and the respondent no.1. The results were announced on 13.5.2001. The candidates secured the votes as under :- <FRM>JUDGEMENT_110_JT4_2003Html1.htm</FRM>

(3.) AN election petition was filed by the appellant laying challenge to the election of the respondent no.1 on very many grounds. The appellant in his election petition submitted, inter alia, that there were three voters who had voted twice, that there were nine voters who were actually dead, thirty voters were actually abroad and twenty seven voters were actually out of station; and hence these forty voters were not available for voting on the date of polling and yet ballots in their names were cast by impersonators; that five voters who reached the polling station were told that impersonators had already cast ballots in their names and therefore they were permitted to cast tender ballots; that forty eight voters could not cast their ballot as the copy of the voter list supplied at booth no. 185 was defective and the relevant pages on which the names of these voters appeared were missing; that six voters entitled to exercise their franchise through postal ballots could not do so as some impersonators had exercised franchise in their place; that there were postal ballots attested by incompetent officers and hence invalid and so on. There were other illegalities committed during polling and also at counting, alleged the election petition.