SAWNA LAKRA Vs. DUTI PAHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this election petition filed under Sections 80, 80A, 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 the petitioner has prayed for declaring the election of respondent No. 1 as the Member of Bihar Legislative Assembly from 305, Khijri Reserved Assembly Constituency in the district of Ranchi as illegal and, thus to be set aside and further a prayer was made for a direction for recounting the entire ballot papers polled in this Assembly Constituency and then the petitioner be declared as elected Member.

(2.) The petitioner claimed that in January, 1995, a notification was made for election of the Bihar Legislative Assembly Constituency including the disputed Constituency No. 305, Khirji Assembly Constituency which is a reserved Constituency in the district of Ranchi and the date of election was fixed for 7-3-1995 which was extended to 11-3-1995. For the aforesaid election, several persons including the petitioner filed their nomination and after scrutiny and withdrawal, 28 candidates remained in the field including that of the petitioner and different symbols were allotted to them. The petitioner was contesting the election on behalf of Indian National Congress and his symbol was 'hand', whereas the elected candidate Duty Pahan was the candidate of B.J.P. with symbol Kamal. After election, counting was taken up on 29-3-1995 in Agricultural Marketing Yard Office at Pandra and for counting there were 14 tables and table No. 15 was the central table to scrutinise the doubtful ballot papers.

(3.) It is the case of the election petitioner that for table No. 15 he appointed Jugeswar Thakur as his counting Agent but he was not allowed to enter into the hall or sit near the table No. 15 in spite of the protest of the petitioner and so the Returning Officer in collusion with the subordinate officers got a free hand in rejecting the valid ballot papers polled in favour of the petitioner and referred to table No. 15 as doubtful cases.