Judgment

SHAH, J. : At the general elections held in February 1962, five candidates contested the election to the House of the People from the Barabanki single-member constituency. The appellant Ram Sweak Yadav - who will be referred to as "Yadav" - was at the counting of votes found to have secured to highest number of votes and he was declared elected. Hussain Kamil Kidwai - hereinafter called "Kidwai" - who was one of the candidates at the election submitted a petition on April 6, 1962 to the Election Commission for an order declaring the election of Yadav void and for an order that he (Kidwai) be declared duly elected. The Election Tribunal, Lucknow, to which the petition was referred for trial dismissed the petition. In appeal to the High Court of Allahabad the order passed by the Election Tribunal was reversed and the proceedings were remanded for trial with a direction, among others, that the tribunal do give reasonable opportunity to both the parties to inspect the ballot papers and other connected papers. With special leave, Yadav has appealed against the order of the High Court.

2. The principal grounds set by Kidwai in support of this petition were -

1. that there had been