Judgment

GUPTA. J.:- In this appeal by special leave the appellant questions the propriety of an order made by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh in the course of trial of an election petition allowing petitioner s experts to inspect the counterfoils of the ballot papers of voters who had been found by the Court "prima facie to have been impersonated".

2. The facts leading to the order under appeal are briefly as follows. In the election held on March 11. 1973 the appellant Shri Manphul Singh was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha from the Jhajjar Constituency defeating his only rival, Shri Surinder Singh, the respondent before us, by a margin of 265 votes. Shri Surinder Singh, referred to hereinafter as the petitioner, filed an election petition challenging the election of the returned candidate on various allegations of which the following are material for the present purpose:

(1) 28 votes were cast in favour of the returned candidate by some Persons impersonating voters who were dead.

(2) 710 absentee voters were impersonated by persons who polled their votes in favour of the returned candidate.

(3) 158 government servants who were registered as voters in the constit