RAMAWATI DEVI Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. S.B.K. Mangalam, learned counsel for the petitioner; learned AC to GP-4 for the State; Mr. Amit Shrivastava along with Mr. Sanjeev Nikesh, learned counsel for the respondent no. 9; Mr. Sandeep Kumar along with Mr. Vivekanand Singh, learned counsel for the respondents no. 7 and 12 to 16; Mr. S. D. Yadav along with Mr. Shyameshwar Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the respondent no. 11 and Mr. D. K. Sinha, learned senior counsel along with Mr. . Girish Chandra Jha, learned counsel for the respondent no. 10. Despite valid service on the remaining private respondents, nobody has appeared to assist the Court when the matter was heard.

(2.) The petitioner has moved the Court for the following reliefs:

(3.) The basic issue involved in the present case is whether the election held after permitting seven persons to cast their vote using the help of a minor was proper. The contention on behalf of the petitioner was basically on the ground that many of those seven persons had declared in their nomination paper to be literate, and further, one of them had, in her own pen, written the application asking for a help claiming to be illiterate and also that the remaining six applications were in the same handwriting. It was also contended that in some cases, the help which was sought for was not permitted and a third person was given as such help for which there was no provision in law or any justification or reason recorded in the official records.