CHAITANYA KUMAR ADATIYA Vs. SUSHILA DIXIT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On March 13, 1972 the First respondent was declared elected to Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Hoshangabad Constituency defeating three other contestants who are respectively respondents Nos. 2, 3 and 4. The first respondent secured 13,822 votes and respondents 2, 3 and 4 got 5,688, 970 and 12,554 votes respectively. The appellant who is an elector in the Hoshangabad constituency, filed an election petition before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur seeking to have the election of the first respondent declared void alleging that the first respondent had committed various corrupt practices and also on the grounds of irregularity in the counting of votes and non-compliance with certain other provisions of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 which according to the petitioner, materially affected the result of the election. According to the petitioner, on a proper counting of valid votes respondent No. 4 would have been found to have obtained the largest number of votes and he prayed that the election of the first respondent be declared void and respondent No. 4 be declared duly elected from the Hoshangabad Constituency. The High Court having dismissed the election petition, the petitioner has preferred this appeal questioning the correctness of the High Court's decision.

(2.) The allegations as to irregularity in the counting of votes which were pressed before us are as follows:

(3.) On these allegations the petitioner prayed for calling up all papers used at the polls including counterfoils of the ballot papers and statements in Form 14A to enable the petitioner to inspect the same.