JAGDEV SINGH SIDHANTI Vs. PRATAP SINGH DAULTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) At the general elections held in February 1962 five candidates contested the election to the House of the People from the Jhajjar parliamentary constituency. On 27/02/1962 the appellant Jagdev Singh Sidhanti was declared elected. Pratap Singh Daulta who was one of the candidates at the election then filed a petition with the Election Commission praying, inter alia, that the election of the appellant be declared void on the ground that the appellant-Sidhanti-his agents, and other persons with his consent,. had committed certain corrupt practices in connection with the election. Daulta stated that the appellant Sidhanti was set up as a candidate to contest the election by the Harding Lok Samiti, that the appellant and six other persons Piare Lal Bhajnik, Ch. Badlu Ram, Pt. Budh Dev, Prof. Sher Singh, Mahashe Bharat Singh and Achilles Bhagwan Dev who were leaders and active workers of the Gurukul Section of the Arya Samaj had organised a political movement called 'the Hindi agitation' in 1957 the real object of which was to promote feelings of enmity and hatred between the Sikh and the Hindu communities in the State of Punjab ' on the ground of religion and language' to promote their prospects in the general elections to be held in 1962. and for that purpose they held meetings in the Hariana region of the Punjab and appealed to the electorate to vote for Sidhanti 'on the ground of his religion and language'. and used a religious symbol-a flag called 'om Dhwaj' in, all these meetings, that the appellant himself made similar appeals to the electorate and appealed to them to refrain from voting for Daulta who was a sitting member of the House-of the, People from the constituency stating that he Daulta was an enemy of the Arya Samaj and of the Hindi language, that during the election campaign fifteen meetings were held between 10/12/1961- and 18/02/1962 and at all these meetings appeals were made to the electorate on the ground of religion and language of Sidhanti, and attempts were made to, promote feelings of enmity and hatred between Sikhs and Hindus of the Punjab. Allegations about undue influence on the voters in the exercise of their free electoral right were also made in the petition, and details of these alleged corrupt practices were furnished in the schedule annexed to the petition.

(2.) Sidhanti denied that the six persons who were named as his agents and supporters ever acted as his agents in his election campaign and submitted that they were merely interested in the success of the candidates set up by the Hariana Lok Samiti and acted throughout 'on their own and not as his agents'. He also submitted that the Hariana Lok Samiti had no connection with the Arya Samaj, it being a political organization started by Prof. Sher Singh who was an important political leader in the Hariana region. Sidhanti admitted, that he had participated in the meetings to canvass votes, but claimed that he was not responsible for convening the meetings or for the speeches made by others in those meetings, that the Om flag was not a religious symbol and denied that it was used on any occasion by him or his agents or the six persons named by Daulta in his petition, except Bhagwan Dev who was accustomed 'throughout his career' to carry a pennant with 'om' and his own name inscribed thereon on his motor vehicle, but carrying of such a flag or pennant on Bhagwan Dev's vehicle during the election was not with his (Sidhanti's) consent and that it did not amount to commission of a corrupt practice as defined in the Act, that the residents of Hariana area were mainly Hindi-speaking, but the government of Punjab had made Punjabi language in Gurmukhi script a compulsory subject at various levels of school education and this gave rise to a wide-spread agitation against the policy of the government, that to resist the implementation of the policy and the program of the government in the administrative, economic and developmental spheres and to mitigate the hardships of the residents of the Hariana region and to secure redress of their grievances the Hariana Lok Samiti was formed. , and an appeal to the electorate to secure a reversal of the policies and programme of the government was not. it was submitted, an appeal on the ground of language or religion and did not amount to a corrupt practice within the meaning of s. 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

(3.) The tribunal held, inter alia, that the 'om flag' was not a 'religious symbol' of the Arya Samaj, that no satisfactory proof was adduced that Om flag had been used as a symbol of Arya Samaj or that an appeal to secure votes with the aid of the flag was made to the electorate by Sidhanti or by any one else with his consent, that there was no satisfactory evidence to establish that appeals were made to the electorate to vote for Sidhanti or to refrain from voting for the other candidates on the ground of religion or language, and that the applicant Daulta failed to prove that an appeal on the ground of caste, community or religion or language had been made to the electorate to further the prospects of Sidhanti or to prejudicially affect the election of the other candidates. On these and findings recorded on other issues not material in this appeal, the petition filed by Daulta was dismissed by the Election tribunal.