Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J. :- Since we are affirming the conclusion reached by the High Court, there is hardly any need for a long judgment. Even so, the brief facts may be set out to get a hang of the issue agitated before us.

2. In May, 1977, there was the General Election to the Constituencies in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. We are concerned with 34 Anuppur Legislative Constituency. It happened that one Tejraj Dwivedi, an Advocate by profession, was a candidate. He filed his nomination paper but omitted to comply with the requirement of section 33 (5) of the Representation of the People Act (for short, the Act). That provision reads thus :

"Sec. 33 (5) : Where the candidate is an elector of a different constituency, a copy of the electoral roll of that constituency or of the relevant part thereof or a certified copy of the relevant entries in such roll shall, unless it has been filed along with the nomination paper, be produced before the Returning Officer at the time of scrutiny."

It is obvious that there is a mandatory obligation cast on the candidate to produce before the Returning officer a certified copy of the relevant entry in the electoral roll showing his name if the candida