Judgment

S. K. DAS, J.: These two appeals have been heard together as they raise some common questions of law and fact, and this judgement will govern them both.

2. The appellant before us, Murarka Radhey Shyam Ram Kumar, was elected to the House of the People at the third general elections held in the month of February, 1962. He was elected from a constituency known as the Jhunjhunu Parliamentary Constituency in Rajasthan. Two election petitions were filed for setting aside the election of the appellant. One of these was filed by one Ridmal Singh who stated that he was an elector in the said constituency. Another application was filed by one Balji who was also an elector in the said Parliamentary Constituency and whose nomination paper was rejected by the returning officer. We are not concerned in the present appeals with the grounds on which the two election petitions, one by Ridmal Singh and numbered as 269 of 1962 and the other by Balji and numbered as 295 of 1962, were based, because the election petitions have not yet been tried on merits. By two applications dated July 6, 1962, the appellant who was one of the respondent to the two election petitions raised certain preliminar