Judgment

HIDAYATULLAH, C.J.I. :- This is an appeal from the Court of the Judicial Commissioner for Manipur at Imphal under S. l16A of the Representation of the People Act. The appeal arises from an election to the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency at which the appellant, who was the returned candidate, and five others were the contesting candidates. This Outer Manipur Constituency comprised 14 Assembly constituencies. The dates of poll were 15th, 20th, 24th, 28th February, 1967 and 6th March, 1967 and the time of poll was from 7.30 A.M. to 4-30 P. M. This constituency had 219,554 registered voters. The total number of votes polled was 1,20,008. Of these 4,166 votes were declared invalid. The returned candidate received 30,403 votes as against the next candidate who received 28,862 votes. There was thus a majority of 1,541 votes in favour of the returned candidate. The result of the poll was declared on March 10, 1967.

2. The candidate who secured the second largest number of votes filed this election petition on April 20, 1967. The main ground of attack, which succeeded in the Judicial Commissioner s Court, was that polling was disturbed because of numerous circumstances. The