Judgment

SIKRI, J. :- On May 11, 1970, this Court dismissed the above petitions and stated that reasons would be given later. We now proceed to give the reasons.

2. These four election petitions filed under Section 14 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act (XXXI of 1952) (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and Article 71 of the Constitution of India challenge the election of the respondent, Shri V. V. Giri, to the office of the President of India. The petitioner in Election Petition No. 1 of 1969, Shri Shiv Kirpal Singh, was a candidate in the election, and so was the petitioner in Election Petition No. 3, Shri Phul Singh. The nominations of both these petitioners were rejected by the Returning Officer. Election Petition No. 4 was filed by Shri N. Sri Rama Reddy, M. P., and twelve other electors, all members of Parliament. Election Petition No. 5 was filed by Shri Abdul Ghani Dar, M. P., and nine other member of Parliament and eight members of Legislative Assemblies of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Shri V. V. Giri is the sole respondent in Election Petitions Nos. 1, 4 and 5 while in Election Petition No.3 he was impleaded as respondent No. 2 and Union of India through the Election Commission, was impleaded as respondent No. 1.

3. After the sad demise of the then President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain, on May 3, 1969, the Election Commission issued a notification under S. 4 of the Act appointing July 24, 1969, as the last date for filing the nomination papers, July 26, 1969, as the date for scrutiny of the nomination papers, and July 29, 1969, as the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers. Polling was fixed for August 16, 1969. 24 nomination papers were filed before the Returning Officer. On scrutiny which took place on July 26, 1969, the Returning Officer rejected 9 nomination papers, including the nomination papers of Shri Shiv Kirpal Singh, petitioner in Election Petition No. 1, and Shri Phul Singh, petitioner in Election Petition No. 3. He accepted the nomination papers of 15 candidates. No candidate withdrew his nomination by the due date. Counting of votes took place on August 20, 1969, when the result was announced and the respondent, Shri V. V. Giri, was declared elected.

4. The election was sought to be challenged on various grounds in these election petitions. Some of these 2104 grounds were common. The grounds may be broadly formulated as follows :

(1) That the nomination papers of Shri Shiv Kirpal Singh, Shri Charan Lal Sahu and Shri Yogi Raj were wrongly rejected by the Returning Officer;

(2) That the nomination papers of Shri V. V. Giri the respondent, were wrongly accepted by the Returning Officer;

(3) That the nomination papers of Shri Rajbhoj Pandurang Nathuji, Shri Santosh Singh Kachhwaha, Shri Babu Lal Mag and Shri Ram Dulare Tripathi were wrongly accepted by the Returning Officer;

(4) That Part III and Section 21 of the Act are ultra vires the Constitution;

(5) That Rules 4 and 6 (3) (a) of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Election Rules, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules), promulgated under Section 21 of the Act, are ultra vires the Constitution and the Act;

(6) That the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the Union Territories were entitled to be included in the Electoral college for the election of the President and their wrongful non-inclusion had not only materially affected the result of the election but also violated Article 14 of the Constitution;

(7) That the petitioners were entitled to dispute the election even on grounds other than those mentioned in Section 18 of the Act ;

(8) That the offence of bribery at the election had been committed by the respondent and his supporters with his connivance; and

(9) That the result of the election had been materially affected by the commission of the offence of bribery by persons other than the respondent.

5. In addition to these allegations it was alleged that the offence of undue influence had been committed at t