A C JOSE Vs. SIVAN PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner prays for a declaration that the election of the 1st respondent to the Kerala Legislative Assembly from No. 70 Parur Assembly Constituency was void, and that the petitioner has been duly elected from the said constituency.

(2.) Six candidates contested the election on 19-5-1982 from No. 70 Parur L. A. Constituency. The 1st respondent who was a candidate of the Communist Party of India and the petitioner, a candidate of the Congress (A), were the two principal contestants. The result of the election was announced on 20-5-1982. The Ist respondent secured 30450 votes while the petitioner secured only 30327 votes. The 1st respondent thus secured 123 votes more than the total votes secured by the petitioner. Of the 30450 votes secured by the 1st respondent, only 11268 votes bad been manually cast in the conventional manner (hereinafter referred to as "conventional votes") in accordance with the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (the 'Act') and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 (the 'Rules'). The remaining 1982 votes were cast by means of electronic voting machines (for short, 'voting machines') in accordance with the directions issued by the Election Commission of India (the 'Commission') in their Notification No. 3/5/82 (KL) dated 11-5-1982 (the 'notification') published in the Kerala Gazette Extraordinary dated 13-5-1982. (I shall call such votes 'machine votes'). In the case of the petitioner, on the other hand, of the 30327 votes secured by him, 13446 votes were conventional votes while the remaining 16881 votes were machine votes. These figures show that while the 1st respondent secured 2301 machine votes in excess of such votes secured by the petitioner, the petitioner secured 2178 conventional votes in excess of such votes secured by the 1st respondent.

(3.) For the conduct of poll at a specified polling station, the provisions of R.28 to 48 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 shall apply, subject to the following modifications which are considered necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of those rules having regard to the use of voting machines, namely: