SWARAJ SINGH Vs. BANSILAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge here is to the election of Ch. Bansilal to the Lok Sabha from the Bhiwani Parliamentary Constituency in the recent General Election held in November, 1989.

(2.) There were as many as 129 candidates who had filed nominations for contesting the election to Parliament from the Bhiwani Constituency. Later, seven withdrew leaving 122 candidates in the field. Amongst them being the seven petitioners, besides, of course, the respondent Ch. Bansi Lal and his main rival Ch. Dharam Vir who was, however, subsequently deleted from the array of respondents.

(3.) As per the case set up in the petition on 2/11/1989, which was the last date for the withdrawal of nominations, there were only 35 symbols notified by the Election Commission of India and symbols were thus allotted to only 35 candidates on that day while the others including the petitioners were allotted their symbols a few days later, namely; on 8/11/1989 and what is more, their symbols were not published in the gazette notification till 21/11/1989, that is, a day before polling day 22/11/1989.