KALAMATAMOHANRAO Vs. NARAYANARAODHARMANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under Section 116A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (for short Rs. the R. P. Act') by the returned candidate against the judgment dated 18th December, 1991 by N. D. Patnaik, J. of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Election Petition No. 7 of 1990, setting aside the election of the appellant to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly from No. 6 Pathapatnam Assembly Constituency held on 22-11-1989. The appellant was candidate of the Telgu Desam Party while respondent No. 1 Narayana Rao Dharmana was the Congress (I) candidate at the election. The appellant polled 41,040 votes and was declared elected against respondent No. 1 who obtained 40,766 votes. The election petition was filed on several grounds including the corrupt practice under Section 123 (3) of the R. P. Act of appealing for votes on the ground of his religion. The High Court has recorded a finding that the appellant is guilty of the corrupt practice under Section 123 (3) and on that basis the election of the appellant has been set aside. The other grounds on which the election was challenged have not been held to be proved and, therefore, reference to them is unnecessary at this stage.

(2.) The only question for decision in this appeal is the correctness of the High Court's finding against the appellant for commission of the corrupt practice under Section 123 (3) of the R. P. Act. The relevant pleading of this corrupt practice is contained in para (xxvii) of the election petition. The gist of the pleading is that the appellant on 17-11-1989 got pasted posters on the walls at several places in the constituency which depicted the Telugu Desam Party Supreme N. T. Rama Rao in the role of Lord Krishna worshiped by the Hindus as an incarnation blowing a conch shell, a sloka from Bhagwad Gita written at the top of the poster and below the photograph of N. T. Rama Rao his clarion call to the voters to defeat the deceitful Congress which had sold away the nation. The clear implication and the innuendo of the poster was also pleaded in para (xxvii) of the election petition as under:-

(3.) A photograph Ex. A-7 of the above poster proved to have been taken by the photographer Chowdary Vaikuntarao (PW-14) was produced as evidence and the other witnesses examined were Narayana Rao Dharmana (PW-1) (election petitioner), Miryabilli Ramagao Naidu (PW-10), Maddela Paparao (PW-11), Votti Mukhalingam (PW-12) and B. Ramanna (PW-13). Another witness K. Veerabhadra Rao (PW-9) was disbelieved by the High Court and, therefore, we are excluding his testimony from consideration. It is significant that no evidence was led in rebuttal by the appellant who failed to examine even himself as a witness to deny the allegations made against him. The High Court has accepted the evidence led by the election petitioner and found the alleged corrupt practice under Section 123 (3) of the R. P. Act proved against the appellant.