Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- The locale of this election litigation, now at the appellate stage, lies in Bangalore, an industrial city inhabited by a blend of multi-religious poly-lingual communities. But, when a pathological power-scramble is on, the politics of stoop-to-conquer shows up in forms of unscrupulous opportunism and investment in group hatred and the Chamarajpet constituency in Bangalore City is alleged to have been injected by this virus by the appellant at about the time the State Assembly elections in March 1972 were held. If multi-form corruption corrodes the electoral process - and that is the imputation here - the gutter can come to power , to adapt a phrase used in a different context by a great writer. Judging by the general trend of vice and violation organised as election strategy, only glimpses of which Judges get in election cases, we wonder whether parties and individuals who practice these oblique techniques, fully realise the moral of the Frankenstein s monster episode. These dark forebodings, however, do not deter us from applying the sound tests laid down by a long line of cases in interpreting the provisions and evaluating the evidence in election case