PASHUPATI BANERJI Vs. NRIPENDRA NARAYAN SINGHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the Chief Presidency Magistrate dismissed a complaint under Section 203, Criminal P.C., for want of sufficient evidence and a rule was issued to show cause why this order should not be set aside and a further enquiry made into the complaint.

(2.) The petitioner filed a complaint against the two opposite parties charging them with having committed offences under Secs.420, 417, 171-F and 114,I. P.C. The petitioner stated that he was a voter in the West Bengal non-Mahomedan Constituency for the Council of State in India and that before the last by-election held in March 1930 two ballot papers ware sent to him, but on the cover in which they were enclosed his name was incorrectly written. Shortly after this, the petitioner alleges, that some one telephoned to him who gave the name of the first opposite party, whom I will refer to as the Maharaj Kumar. The petitioner instructed his employee to speak on the telephone for him and thereupon the speaker at the other end asked for his vote. He pointed out that he could not vote because the ballot papers had been sent in the wrong name and the speaker suggested that he might vote by adopting the name which appeared in the register. This the petitioner refused to do and thereupon his employee was asked to hand over the ballot papers to the Maharaj Kumar who would get the name corrected and return the ballot papers duly corrected to the petitioner.

(3.) Soon afterwards two persons alleging that they came from the Maharaj Kumar called for the ballot papers and they were handed over. The petitioner- says that of the two persons who came, one was the second opposite party Earn Abatar Lal. Subsequently repeated requests were made for the return of the papers and eventually after correspondence Ram Abatar came with two ballot papers -with the numbers torn off which he said were the two ballot papers which he had taken and explained that the portions missing had been eaten by white ants. On 15 July 1930 the Maharaj Kumar, it is alleged, saw the petitioner and promised to get back the original ballot papers by 4 August. He did not fulfil his promise and another demand was made and on 19 August the Maharaj Kumar again saw the petitioner and said that he had handed over the ballot papers to Ram Abatar and he had expected that Ram Abatar would give them to the petitioner. Subsequently the petitioner ascertained that no application had been made to correct his name in the register or in the ballot papers but somebody had used the ballot papers and voted in the name of the petitioner. The petitioner has not been able to discover who this was.