RADHA BAI ANANDA RAO Vs. S SUVARNA KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant Smt. Radha Bai Ananda Rao feels aggrieved against the judgment of the High court Andhra Pradesh dated 21/09/1978, as her election to the sixth Lok Sabha from the Bhadrachalam (Scheduled Tribes) Parliamentary Constituency has been declared void. She was declared elected on 21/03/1977, but her election was challenged by K. Bapanna Dora, who was one of the contesting candidates at the election, on the ground that she was not a member of a scheduled tribe and had wrongly made a declaration, in her nomination paper, that she belonged to the 'koya' scheduled tribe notified by the President's order under Article 342 (1) of the Constitution to be a scheduled tribe throughout the State of Andhra Pradesh. The appellant denied the contention of the election petitioner and asserted that sue belonged to that tribe. She stated that she had successfully contested the two earlier general elections of 1967 and 1971 also, as a candidate belonging to the 'kova' scheduled tribe.

(2.) Four issues were framed by the trial court on 17/03/1978. K. Bapanna Dora however made an application on 3/04/1978, under S. 109 (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for leave to withdraw the election petition. That was allowed, and S. Suvarna Kumar was substituted as the election petitioner. The High court proceeded with the trial of the election petition and ultimately recorded the finding that the appellant did not belong to the 'koya' community, which was a scheduled tribe, that the acceptance of her nomination paper by the Returning Officer was illegal, and that her election was liable to be declared void. It accordingly made the impugned order and awarded costs to the election petitioner.

(3.) Although four issues were framed for the trial of the election petition, the trial centred round the main question whether the appellant belonged to the 'koya' scheduled tribe mentioned in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950. The schedule to the order specifies that the following shall, inter alia, be a scheduled tribe throughout the State of Andhra Pradesh,