SUBBARAO Vs. MEMBER ELECTION TRIBUNAL HYDERABAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by special leave against a judgment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh by which a Writ Petition filed by the 3rd Respondent - K. Brahmananda Reddy - was allowed and an Election Petition filed by the appellant was directed to be dismissed.

(2.) The facts giving rise to the proceedings with which the appeal is concerned are briefly as follows:At the General Election held in the month of February 1962 for the Legislative Assembly - Constituency of Phirangipuram in Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh, the third respondent Brahmananda Reddy and one Chandramouli, the 2nd respondent before us, were the contesting candidates. The polling at the Election took place on February 26, 1962 and the Returning Officer declared Brahamananda Reddy, elected as having obtained the majority of valid votes. Thereafter, the appellant who is a voter on the rolls of the said Constituency filed an Election Petition before the Election Commission on April 11, 1962 under S. 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which we shall refer to as the Act. There was no formal defect in the Petition, it was accompanied by the requisite number of copies provided for by the Act and also by the treasury receipt evidencing the deposit of the requisite sum for security as provided by S. 117 of the Act. The grounds on which the election was sought to be set aside were various and included inter alia allegations of corrupt practices against the returned candidate as well as his election agent, as also several irregularities in the polling by having the votes of dead voters recorded as well as by double voting. The petition was received by the Commission, who after satisfying itself that it was in conformity with the Act had a copy of the petition published in the Official Gazette on May 17, 1962 as provided by S. 86 of the Act. In the due course, an Election Tribunal was constituted and the petition was referred to the Tribunal for trial. The returned candidate - Brahamananda Reddy filed his Written Statement on September 15, 1962 in which the allegations of fact made in the petition were denied. Besides what might be termed the merits of the allegations in the election petition, Brahamananda Reddy raised by his Written Statement several technical objections pointing out certain defects in the Petition. This appeal is concerned either with these technical defects in the election petition or with the defence raised on the merits to the charges that were formulated in it. The merits have yet to be tried, and as regards the technical objections to the petition raised in the Written Statement dated September 15, 1962, they have been disposed of by the High Court and the same are not before us. A few days later on September 24, 1962, Brahamananda Reddy filed a further statement of objections to the petition raising mostly objections of a technical nature and of these the only objection which is the subject matter of the present appeal is that contained in paragraph 2 which reads, and we quote the material words:

(3.) This second statement contained a prayer that in view of the technical objections, the maintainability of the petition might be decided as a preliminary issue as the objections went into the root of the matter.