Judgment

DWIVEDI, J. :- I agree with my brethren that the requisite copies of the election petition were not filed in Court within the period of limitation by the appellant. I am constrained also to agree that for this procedural fault his election petition is liable to be dismissed in view of the decision of the Court in jagat Kishore Prasad Narain Singh v. Rajindra Kumar Poddar (1971) 1 SCR 821. In that case Hegde J. said :

"The Law requires that a true copy of the election petition should be served on the respondents. That requirement has not been either fully or substantially complied with. Therefore we have no doubt in our mind that, the election petition is liable to be dismised under Section 86 of the Act."

2. It makes me sad to read this requiem for this election petition. Over a century ago a slip in procedure by a litigant meant denial of justice to him. "(R)ight down the nineteenth century, the choice of the wrong writ involved the loss of the action even though all the merits were with the plaintiff." Holdsworth : A History of English Law, 9, 248. Gradually however, courts subordinated procedure to the claims of justice. In Ma Shew Mya v. Maung Ho Hnaung AIR 1922 PC 249 at