K K SUMANGALA TEACHER Vs. USHA TEACHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A defeated candidate who made an unsuccessful attempt to unseat the returned candidate is the appellant. His Election Petition was rejected, not at the threshold, but after the commencement trial, on the ground of maintainability.

(2.) THE appellant and the respondent were candidates for the election to the Local Bodies held on 24/09/2005. THEy contested from No. 10 of Muthuvara Division of Puzhakkal Block Panchayat. THE respondent was declared elected. Appellant filed Election Petition No. 262/2005, before the District Court, Thrissur, for a declaration that the election of the respondent is void, on the ground that the result of the election was materially affected by improper counting of votes, improper tabulation, and other material irregularities. It was alleged that there was violation of the provisions of the Kerala Panchayath Raj Act, 1994, (for short 'the Act') and the Kerala Panchayat Raj (Conduct of Election) Rules, 1995, (for short 'the Rules' ). THEre was also a prayer to declare the appellant as elected.

(3.) IT was averred that tampering took place with respect to the result in Ward Nos. 10/1 and 10/2. IT was averred in the Original Petition that the petitioner secured 467 votes and respondent secured 462 votes. There were 25 invalid votes in Ward No. 10. Instead of showing that result, it was written as follows, "ward No. 10/1, petitioner-219 votes, respondent-241 votes, invalid votes-14 and total-474 votes, and in Ward No. 10/2, petitioner-330 votes, respondent-257 votes, invalid votes-16, and total-603 votes". The details were given as a tabular form in the Original Petition itself. IT was averred that entry in the result sheet was incorrect, since the total number of ballot papers issued Ward No. 10/1 was only 351, as per the Ballot Paper Account issued in Form No. 24 under R. 41 of the Rules. When only 351 ballot papers were issued in Ward No. 10/1, in the result sheet, the total votes polled was shown as 474. There is a difference of 123 ballot papers between the number of ballot papers issued and number of votes polled.