AMJAD ALI AND ORS. Vs. NAZMUT HAQUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two are connected appeals under Section 116 -A of the Representation of the People Act 1951, which arose out of the same proceeding which was registered as Election Case No. 237 of 1957 in the court of Mr. Ram Labhaya, Member, Election Tribunal. The election petition was filed under Section 81 read with Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 by Nazmul Haque, challenging the election of Amjad Ali who was returned to the House of People from the Parliamentary constituency numbered as H. P. 38 -Dhubri, in the district of Goalpara, on the ground of corrupt practice amongst Ors. and for naming certain other persons to be guilty of the corrupt practices in conjunction with Sri Amjad Ali.

(2.) THE case for the petitioner Nazmul Haque was that ho was a candidate for the Dhubri Parliamentary Constituency (H. P. 38) and that he was a nominee of the Congress Party. Amjad Ali is only rival in the election, who was then a sitting member of Parliament, was set up by the Praja Socialist Party. The pollings were held on three days -viz. -25th February, 2nd March and 6th March 1957 in various centres and as a result of the counting of votes it was found that Amjad Ali had secured 1,01,303 votes as against 73,410 votes secured by the petitioner and accordingly, the former was declared to be elected as Member of the Parliament on the 11th March 1957.

(3.) IN reply to the charges of corrupt practices brought by the petitioner, the defendant filed a written statement categorically denying the allegations of corrupt practices ascribed to him and his associates. His case was that he carried on propaganda through public meetings but not in the manner and the way as alleged by the petitioner, namely by appealing' to the religious or communal sentiment of his audience.