GURBANTA SINGH Vs. PIARA RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) FROM the double -member constituency of Kartarpur in district Jullundur, Shri Gurbanta Singh for the seat reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate, and Shri Karam Singh Kirti for the general seat, fought election on Congress ticket and were declared elected during the last general elections to the Punjab Legislative Assembly. On a petition filed by two of the unsuccessful candidates, namely Sarvshri Piara Ram and Mota Singh, the Election Tribunal, Chandigarh, declared the election of both the successful candidates to be void. Two separate appeals have been filed against this order, one by Shri Gurbanta Singh and the other by Shri Karam Singh Kirti (First Appeals from Orders Nos. 207/E and 211/E of 1958.) This order will dispose of both these appeals. In the petition the election of the appellants was challenged on a large number of grounds, but the Election Tribunal only found that so far as Shri Karam Singh Kirti was concerned, he was disqualified for being chosen as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Punjab State because, at the material time there was a subsisting contract for the supply of goods between the Punjab Government and the firm G.W. Balkar and Company, in which Shri Karam Singh Kirti had an interest, and also, that Shri Karam Singh Kirti was guilty of having committed a corrupt practice, because he had attempted to pay a sum of Rs. 500 to Kartar Chand, a rival candidate for the reserved seat, as an inducement to him to withdraw from the contest, and it was further held that in making this offer of the bribe Shri Karam Singh Kirti was acting as an agent of Shri Gurbanta Singh and with his consent, and that consequently Shri Gurbanta Singh was also guilty of having committed a corrupt practice and his election was therefore void. In the alternative it was found that even if this corrupt practice of bribery was committed by Shri Karam Singh without the consent of Shri Gurbanta Singh, the same was clearly done in his interest and that this had materially affected the result of the election and consequently the election of Shri Gurbanta Singh was void on this ground also.

(2.) WITH regard to the question of bribery, we have the statement of Kartar Chand, P.W., to whom the offer is said to have been made and that of Pritam Singh, P.W., who is said to have been present at the time. According to Kartar Chand, he was one of the validly nominated candidates during the last general elections and on 4th of February, 1957, which was the last date for the withdrawal of the candidature, he had gone to the office of the Deputy Commissioner at Jullundur and was standing outside in the lawns at a short distance from the office of Shri J.S. Madan, the returning officer, when he was approached by Pritam Singh who told him that he being a Congress candidate should not oppose the official nominee of the Congress and that if he continued to contest the election he may adversely affect the chances of the official candidates by deflecting a large number of electors, because he had influence in about eighty villages in that constituency where persons coming from Dhijkot Manko in West Pakistan, from where Kartar Chand had come, had settled. At that time Shri Karam Singh Kirti came out of the room occupied by Shri J.S. Madan, returning officer, and told him that "the Congress High Command had made the final selection." What happened thereafter is described by Kartar Chand as follows:

(3.) PRITAM Singh, P.W. 9, stated that he had met Kartar Chand along with one Nirmal Chand between 10 and 11 a.m., on the date of the withdrawal in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office when he found Shri Karam Singh Kirti along with two or three persons including Sant Ram of Beas Pind (who was another rival candidate) and one Shanghara Singh talking with one another at a distance of about 10 or 12 yards from them. After 10 or 12 minutes Shri Karam Singh Kirti came to the place where Kartar Chand, Pritam Singh and Nirmal Chand were present. This is what, according to him, happened thereafter: