Judgment

GAJENDRAGADKAR, C.J.I.: This appeal has been brought to this Court by the appellant, Dr. Jagjit Singh, on a certificate granted to him by the Punjab High Court. It arises from an election petition filed by him on April 10, 1962 before the Election Tribunal (II), Chandigarh (No. 99 of 1962) against the five respondents. These respondents are: Giani Kartar Singh, Shiv Singh, Chanan Ram, Om Prakash and Bhagat Singh, respectively. The appellant contested the election to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Dasuya Constituency at the last General Election in the beginning of 1962. The result of this election was declared on February 25, 1962 when respondent No. 1, Giani Kartar Singh, was declared to have been duly elected. The appellant and respondent No. 1 had secured 22,406 and 22,803 votes, respectively; and so, it is clear that respondent No. 1 had a very narrow margin over the appellant. The other respondents appeared to have played no significant part in the election, because the votes they secured were 948, 682, 240 and 756, respectively. After the result of the election was announced, the appellant filed an election petition under the relevant provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (No. 43 of 1951) (hereinafter called the Act ). By his petition, the appellant claimed a declaration that the election of respondent No. 1 was void and that he had in fact been duly elected at the said election. The proceedings before the Tribunal were lengthy and protracted and the dispute between the parties appears to have been fought with great bitterness and heat. The appellant made several allegations against respondent No. 1 and urged on the strength of the said allegations that his election was void. One of the prayers made by the appellant in his election petition was that for the reasons which he had indicated therein, he was entitled to have an inspection of the ballot boxes and a recount made of the votes cast in favour of the respective parties. The Tribunal upheld his plea and allowed inspection of the ballot boxes. As a result of the recount made by the Tribunal, the Tribunal came to the conclusion that the appellant be declared to have been elected at the said election.

2. At the trial, the Tribunal initially raised 14 issues; some of them were in the nature of preliminary issues, while others had reference to the merits of the controversy between the parties. On the 24th August 1962, on a request made by respondent No. 1, two more issues were added, and that made the number of issues 16. Thereafter, on the 3rd September 1962, the Tribunal added three more issues. In consequence, 19 issues came to be tried by the Tribunal.

3. The decision of the Tribunal which was in favour of the appellant, however, rested on three findings. It held that respondent No. 1 had committed the corrupt practice of bribery by offering and giving Rs. 1,000 to Tapasvi Gir with the object of inducing him to withdraw from being a candidate at the election, and by offering and giving Rs. 2,000 at Safdarpore to Balwant Singh and others with the object of inducing the electors in that village to vote for him at the election. These two findings would show that respondent No. 1 had committed corrupt practices as defined by S. 123 (1) (A) (a) and (b) of the Act. The Tribunal further found that the result of the election in so far as it concerned the returned candidate had been materially affected by the improper reception of votes in his favour which were void and by the improper rejection of valid votes polled in favour of the appellant. On a proper re-counting, the Tribunal came to the conclusion that respondent No. 1 had received 22,412 votes, and the appellant was found to have received 22,491 votes. This conclusion of the Tribunal was recorded under S. 100 (1) (d) (iv) of the Act. In the result, the Tribunal allowed the election petition, declared the election of respondent No. 1 to be void, and gave the appellant a declaration