AMICHAND UDAYRAM Vs. PRATAP SINGH HARPAL SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under Section 116-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (hereinafter called the 'act') arises out of an election petition filed by the appellant amichand before the Election Commission, New Delhi, in which he prayed that the electron of the first respondent, Pratapsingh, to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative assembly from, pithora Constituency be declared void and that it be further declared that respondent No. 6 Nemichand had been duly elected from the said constituency.

(2.) THE petition filed by the appellant was made over to the Election Tribunal, raigarh, for trial. In his written statement, respondent No. 1 raised an objection on 7-7-1962 that the petition was liable to be summarily dismissed because it was not verified as required by law and hence there was no proper election petition for being inquired into by the Tribunal. The appellant thereupon made an application on 19-7-1962 under Order 6 rule 17 of tne Code of Civil Procedure read with section 90 (1) of tne Act to amend the petition. We are not here required to deal with the amendments which are stated in paragraph 2 (a) to (f) of the application because all these amendments have been treated by the Election Tribunal to be of formal nature. In paragraph 2 (g), the appellant prayed for adding verification clause at the foot of the petition.

(3.) RESPONDENTS Nos. 2 to 6 did not raise any objection for adding the verification clause but respondent No. 1 objected to the amendment being made in the reply, dated 27-7-1962. The Election Tribunal passed an order on 26-12-1962 rejecting the prayer for adding the verification clause. That order is the subject-matter of this appeal.