KHILUMAL TOPANDAS Vs. ARJUNDAS TULSIDAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal under Section 166 A of the Representation of the People Act (hereinafter called the Act) by Shri Khilumal Topandas whose election petition has been dimissed by the election Tribunal, Ajmer- on the 10th of September, 1967. The petition relates to the Ajmer Cily west Constituency of the Rajasthan assembly. The insult of the election was declared on the 9th of March, 1957 and shri Arjundas Tulsidas respondent was declared elected. The appellant is an elector in that constituency. He presented an election petition before the Election commission. The trial of the petition took place before Shri Kishan Lul Dhabai, Member of the election Tribunal, Ajmer, The election was challenged on various grounds but in this appeal the learned counsel for the appellant frankly conceded that he confined his case to the corrupt practices which fell within the definition of Sub-sections 3 and 4 of Section 123 of the Act. In that elcction Dr. Pohumal was the candidate on behalf of the Congress party. Shri Kishen Gurnani was an independent candidate but he withdrew from the contest before the election. The particulars relating to the corrupt practices alleged to have been committed under Section 123 (3) are given in paragraphs 10, 11 and 12 of the election petition, while the particulars about the corrupt practices alleged to have been committed under Section 123 (4)are given in paragraphs 4 to 9 of the petition.

(2.) SO far as the corrupt practices under Section 123 (3) are concerned, learned counsel for the appellant confined his arguments before us to the documents Exs. 2, 3, 4, and 9 to 14, all in the Sindhi language and it was urged that the publication of these by the respondent or his agents or his party amounted to a systematic appeal to the Sindhies in that constituency to vote in favour of the respondent on the ground of community. It was urged that soon before or after the partition of india in 1947 a large number of residents of Sind who were known as Sindhies migrated to Ajmer City and they formed the Sindhi Community. The respondent or his agents systematically appealed to the Sindhies to vote in favour of the respondent who was himself a Sindhi by publication of the aforesaid documents.

(3.) EX. 2 is a pamphlet under the signature of the respondent. It is published in the hindu Printing Press, Ajmer. Ex. 3 is a pamphlet purporting to be issued by one shri Hiranand and published in Qurbani Press, Diggi Chowk, Palaza Road, Ajmer. Ex. 4 is another pamphlet purporting to be issued by Respondent Shri Arjundas tulsidas. Exs. 9 to 14 are extracts from the newspaper Hindu Daily, the Chief editor of which was Shri Govindram Hassaram and the Editor Shri Shewaram tilokchand. This newspaper was published at Hindu Press, Ajmer. The respondent admitted that Exs. 2 and 4 were published by him but he denied that any other documents were published by him or his agents. We first take into consideration Ex. 2. The respondent has also produced Ex. A4 and Ex. A5 two pamphlets which are substantially the translations of Ex. 2 in Hindi and English respectively and which were also distributed by the respondent during the election, As there is no dispute about the English translation we may take it that the Ex. 2 when translated in English is as given in Ex. A5. As this pamphlet is the subject-matter of the corrupt practice under Section 123 (4), we may quote it in verbatim the whole pamphlet.