Judgment

GROVER, J.:- This is an appeal from a Judgment of the Patna High Court holding that the nomination papers of the respondent Smt. Jahan Ara Jaipal Singh had been illegally rejected by the Returning Officer. For that reason the election of the returned candidate Shri N. E. Horo from the 51 Khunti Parliamentary (Scheduled Tribe) Constituency in the State of Bihar was set aside.

2. On May 1, 1970 the Election Commission of India issued a notification calling upon the above-named Parliamentary Constituency to elect a Member to the Lok Sabha in the vacancy caused by the death of late Shri Jaipal Singh. The last date for filing the nomination papers was May 8, 1970. The date for scrutiny was May 9 1970. Several persons filed nomination papers including Theodore Bodra and others. Two nomination papers were filed on behalf of the respondent who was a Congress (Ruling) candidate for the aforesaid by-election According to the respondent she was the widow of late Shri Jaipal Singh and was a member of the Munda Scheduled Tribe in the State of Bihar. She filed certain certificates to that effect. Bodra filed an objection petition to the nomination papers of the respondent. The Returning Officer, after hearing arguments, passed an order rejecting the nomination papers of the respondent. The nomination papers of a all the other candidates were accepted, After the polling took place the result of the election was announced on June 3, 1970 and the appellant Shri Horo was declared elected to the Lok Sabha. On July 8, 1970 the respondent filed an election petition.

3. In the election petition it was stated inter alia that the petitioner (who is now respondent before us) was the widow of late Shri Jaipal Singh and belonged to the Munda Scheduled Tribe although she was a Christian by religion. It was averred in Paragraph 3 of the petition that according to the Munda Customary Law when a Munda male married outside the Munda Tribe if his marriage is accepted by the Tribe he continues to be a member of that Tribe and his wife also acquires its membership. It was pleaded that the wife being a member of her husband s family had the right of succession to her husband s property as well. In Para 4 of the petition it was stated that the petitioner was a Tamil by birth. She married late Shri Jaipal Singh in the year1954 according to the rites and rituals of Mundas in the presence of Parha Raja, Parha Munda., Parha Pahan, relatives of the deceased and the members of the Tribe at Morabadi a Mohalla of Ranchi. In Paragraph 5 the ceremonies which were performed according to Munda Custom were mentioned. These ceremonies inter alia were the washing of the wife s feet by the elder sister of the husband and the holding of the feast of the male goat meat the drinks of Handia etc. A new name was given by her mother-in-law to the petitioner, that name being Lankashri. All these functions were witnessed by Parha Raja, Parha Munda, Parha Pahan and other members of the Tribe. In Paragraph 6 more details were given of the various other ceremonies also which were performed in connection with the marriage. After referring to the relevant provisions of the Representation of the People Act 1951, hereinafter called the Act , it was stated that the Returning Officer had illegally allowed irrelevant personal aspersions to be cast against the petitioner by her opponents. It was alleged that the Returning Officer had been influenced by Bodra who was the Chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council. The decision of the Returning Officer that the status of a Munda could be acquired only by birth and not by marriage and that the petitioner did not belong to the Munda Scheduled Tribe was challenged principally on the ground that the returning Officer had not considered the custom by which if a Munda male marries a woman not belonging to Munda Tribe and that if accepted by the Tribe the wife acquires the membership thereof.

4. In his written statement the returned candidate Shri Hor