Judgment

Rajendra Babu, J.-Election to the Haryana Legislative Assembly was held on April 27, 1996 and the appellant before us (hereinafter re­ferred to as ‘the returned candidate’) was elected to the Legislative Assembly from No. 89, Ateli Vidhan Sabha Constituency. On notification for election being issued, 88 nomination papers were filed. The re­turned candidate was sponsored by the Indian National Congress. At the time of scrutiny some of the nomination papers were rejected by the Returning Officer on the ground that oath or affirmation as contem­plated under Article 173 of the Constitution had not been taken either before the Returning Officer or any other competent authority and, therefore, their nomination papers were invalid. Ultimately after withdrawal of their candidature 47 candidates remained to be elected. The returned candidate secured 22144 votes while his nearest rival, Om Prakash, secured 19270 votes and the appellant was declared elected. Om Prakash,the defeated candidate, filed election petition No. 6/96 on the ground that nomination papers of Suresh Kumar and Yogender amongst others had been improperly rejected. Mala Ram filed election petition No. 5/96 contendin