Judgment

SARKAR, J. : In the 1957 General Elections the appellant was declared elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The respondent, Gian Chand, filed an election petition for a declaration that the appellant s election was void. The other respondent in this appeal, presumably another unsuccessful candidate at the election, had been made a party to the petition but he never appeared at any stage. For brevity we will refer to the respondent Gian Chand, as the respondent.

2. The Election Tribunal before whom the petition came up for trial framed a number of issues and recorded evidence. When the case was ready for argument, the appellant made an application to the Tribunal for an order dismissing the petition under S. 90(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which is later set out, on the ground that S. l17 of that Act had not been complied with. Section l17 requires that every election petition shall be accompanied by a Government Treasuary receipt showing that a deposit of Rs. 1,000 had been made by the petitioner in favour of the Secretary to the Election Commission as security for the costs of the petition. The appellant s contention was that the receipt enclose