NONOTHOMBAM IBOMCHA SINGH Vs. LEISANGTHEM CHANDRAMANI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the mid-term poll to Manipur Legislative Assembly held in February 1974, respondent No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the respondent) was declared elected from the Patsoi Assembly constituency. The appellant, who was one of the rival candidates, filed an election petition to challenge the election of the respondent. The election petition was dismissed by the Gauhati High Court. The appellant has now come up in appeal against the judgment of the High Court.

(2.) The respondent, who was a candidate sponsored by the Manipur People's Party secured 5,033 votes, while the appellant who was his nearest rival secured 2,473 votes. There were some other candidates, but we are not concerned with them. The respondent was the Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly at the relevant time. The Assembly was dissolved in 1973. The respondent, however, continued to hold the office of the Speaker till March 8, 1974. The appellant challenged the election of the respondent on two main grounds. One of the grounds was that the respondent being ex-Speaker of the Assembly held an office of profit in the State Government and as such was disqualified to seek election. The other ground was that the election expenses of the respondent exceeded the prescribed limit of Rs. 2,500. It was also stated that some of the expenses incurred by the respondent for the purpose of election had not been shown by him in the return filed by him, and as such, he was guilty of corrupt practice. The High Court repelled all the grounds, and in the result dismissed the election petition.

(3.) In appeal before us Mr. Sharma on behalf of the appellant has not challenged the finding of the High Court insofar as it has held that the respondent was not disqualified from seeking election because of the fact that he held the office of the Speaker. The appellant indeed could not challenge this finding as we find that the Manipur legislaure has now passed the Manipur Legislature (Removal of Disqualifications) (Amendment) Act, 1975 (Manipur Act 1 of 1975). As a result of this amendment, a person holding the office of Speaker of Manipur Legislative Assembly shall not be disqualified from seeking election to the Legislative Assembly of that State because of his holding that office. The amending Act, according to clause (2) of Section 1, shall be deemed to have come into force on February 6, 1973. The fact that the legislature is competent to enact such a law with retrospective operation is now well established (see Kanta Kathuria v. Manak Chand Surana, (1970) 2 SCR 835 and Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi v. Shri Raj Narain, (1976) 2 SCR 347 . In view of the above amending Act, the respondent cannot be held to be disqualified from seeking election to the Legislative Assembly of Manipur on account of his having held the office of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.