Judgment

GOSWAMI, J. :- This election appeal under Section 116-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (briefly the Act) by the appellant, Mohd. Yunus Saleem, the defeated Congress (R) candidate, is against the judgment of the Allahabad High Court wherein he challenges the election of the B.K.D. candidate, Shiv Kumar Shastri (Respondent No. 1) to the Lok Sabha from the 76 Aligarh Parliamentary Constituency in the general elections held in March 1971. This constituency consist of five Assembly constituencies, namely, 876-Aligarh, 377-Koli, 378-Iglas, 379-Khair and 380-Chandaus. There were seven candidates on the run for the election from this constituency. The poll was scheduled to take place in Aligarh and Koli on March 1, 1971 and in Iglas, Khair and Chandaus on March 3, 1971. The polling in Aligarh and Koli was completed peacefully on March 1, 1971 and the appellant obtained the highest number of votes as will appear from the chart given below :

367 377 378 379 380

City Koil Iglas Khair Chandaus Total

Sarva Shri Amar Singh 205 559 603 760 868 2,995

Jagdish Gandhi 500 1,291 1,114 1,103 927 4,937

Pooran Singh Malan 18,385 4,165 310 337 386 23,583

Mohd. Yunus Saleem 44,422 25,228 17,134 19,372 18,030 124,186

Virpal Singh 622 1,240 1,026 1,254 1,320 5,462

Shiv Kumar Shastri 4,719 16,260 42,281 53,240 43,012 160,313

Saheb Singh 558 3,170 1,653 1,671 3,076 6,958

On March 2, 1971, a communal riot between Hindus and Muslims took place in Aligarh city and as a result of this the Election Commission on receipt of reports of the local authorities at Aligarh postponed the poll in the remaining segments from March 3, 1971 to March 9, 1971. As will appear from the above chart, during the poll this time on March 9, 1971, the first respondent obtained a very high percentage of votes with the result that he was declared elected. The 2nd respondent, although a Samyukt Socialist Party candidate (SSP), was sponsored by the four parties alliance consisting of Jan Sangh, Swatantra, Congress led by Shri Nijalingappa, and Samyukt Socialist Party.

2. The appellant alleges several corrupt practices in his election petition before the High Court and also raises certain questions of law. The Chief Election Commissioner has been impleaded as a respondent in this appeal. The High Court has repelled the contentions of the appellant. We are now concerned in this appeal with the following issues :-

Issue No. 2 : "Whether the order of the Election Commission adjourning the poll from 3rd March to 9th March was without jurisdiction and illegal"?

Issue No. 5 : "Whether Pooram Singh Malan (respondent No. 2) withdrew from the election on 6th March and asked his supporters to vote instead for respondent No. 1. If so, was this done as a result of inducements offered at the instance of respondent No. 1"?

Issue No. 7 : "Whether voters were induced by threats offered by Hukum Singh, the polling agent of respondent No. 1, to promise not to vote for the petitioner but to vote for respondent No. 1 (as detailned in paragraph 28 of the petition)"?

Issue No. 8 : "Whether respondent No. 1 and Kalyan Singh, M.L.A. appealed to Hindu voters in Gordha village on 7-3-1971 not to vote for the petitioner because he was a Muslim (as detained in para 28 of the petition); and whether similar appeals were

made to voters by respondent No. 1 and Prakash Vir Shastri, Virendra Varma, Reghunath Singh and Ram Prasad Deshmukh in Khair, Chandaus and Iglas between 7-3-1971 and 9-3-1971 (as detailed in para 30 of the petition)"?

Issue No. 8-A : "Whether respondent No. 1 and the other persons named in paragraph 30 of the petition and the statement of further particulars made speeches in Khair, Chandaus and Iglas Tehsils alleging that the petitioner was responsible for communal riots in Aligarh and other places, which statements were known by them to be false"?

Issue No. 9 : "Whether Virendra Varma and Raghunath Singh appealed to Jat voters to vote for respondent No. 1 on the ground that he wa