GIANI KARTAR SINGH Vs. ELECTION TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) TWO petitions (Civil Writs Nos. 29 and 733 of 1958) under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution have been filed by Giani Kartar Singh challenging orders passed by an Election Tribunal sitting at Chandigarh in the following circumstances. In the general election in which polling took place on the 3rd of March, 1957, the petitioner was declared elected as a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Dasuya constituency (Hoshiarpur District). His election was challenged in a petition filed on the 18th of April, 1957, by Pritam Singh, respondent, who merely claims to be a Voter in the said constituency and is not one of the defeated candidates. The petition filed by Pritam Singh is very brief and in fact the grounds on which he sought that the election should be declared void cover only about half a typed page. The grounds with which we are concerned in the present petitions are items (b), (c) and (d) in paragraph 3 of the petition as follows:

(2.) MR . Rama Prasad Mookerjee was appointed as the Election Tribunal to hear the petition, and on the 20th of July, 1957, at the first hearing, Pritam Singh filed an application purporting to be under section 90(5) of the Representation' of the People Act for permission to supply further particulars regarding certain allegations made by him regarding corrupt practices in the petition. The detailed allegations were contained in the annexures to the petition under section 90(5) and we are concerned with two of them, annexures 'A' and 'B' Although it is not stated in the heading to annexure 'A' that it was meant to relate to the allegation in paragraph 3(b) of the original petition, this seems to be its purpose. The heading reads -

(3.) THEN follows a list of false vouchers bearing dates from the 13th of January 1957, to the 3rd of March 1957, totalling about Rs. 1000.