JAGANNATH DALAI Vs. RAMA CHANDRA NAHAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS miscellaneous appeal is by the appellant Jagannath Dalai under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 3. 951 (hereinafter called the act), against the order dated 25-9-1957 of Mr. P. K. Kaul, Sole Member, Election tribunal, Bhubaneswar. The Appellant, as a matter of extra caution, has filed O. J. C. No. 175 of 1957 under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, which arises out of the same order. Both the matters were heard together and will be covered by this Judgment. The two matters were heard by a Bench of this Court, and as my learned brothers differed in their opinion on points of law appearing in the separate judgment of each of my learned brothers, the matter has been referred to me under Clause 28 of the Letters Patent as well as under Chapter III, Rule 5 and Chapter XIV, Rule 8 of the Orissa High Court Rules.

(2.) THE facts have been exhaustively narrated in each of the judgments of my learned brothers and it would not servo any useful purpose to give the details of the facts in this judgment of mine. I would, however, give in brief the facts necessary for the purpose of appreciation of the points to be determined. The berhampur constituency in the district of Ganjam is a double member constituency, the electors were required to elect two members to the Orissa State legislative Assembly one of the members to represent the general seat and the other to represent the seat reserved for members 'of the scheduled castes. The last election to this constituency was held in the months of January and february 1957. Respondent No. 2 Sri Lingaraj Panigrahi and Respondent No. 9 Sri dandapani Das secured the largest number of votes and were duly elected from the general and reserved seats respectively to the Orissa State Legislative assembly. The results were announced on 8-3-1957.

(3.) THE appellant, an elector, challenged the election of the two successful candidates on grounds, such as, illegal and improper rejection of the nomination papers of respondents 1 and 10; corrupt practices as defined under Section 123 of the Act. He therefore prayed in the petition for declaring the election of the two successful candidates as void.