JUDGMENT

Shanghai, J.-Appellant Smt. Radba Bai Ananda Rao feels aggrieved against the judgment of the High Court Andhra Pradesh dated September 21 1978, as her election to the sixth, Lok Sabha from the Bhadrachalam (Scheduled Tribes) Parliamentary Constituency has been declared void. She was declared elected on March 21, 1977, but her election was challenged by K. Bapanna Dora, who was one of the contesting candidates at the election, on the ground that she was not a member of a scheduled tribe and had wrongly made a declaration, in her nomination paper, that she belonged to the Koya scheduled tribe notified by the Presidents order under Article 342 (1) of the Constitution to be a scheduled tribe throughout the State of Andhra Pradesh. The appellant denied the contention of the election petitioner and asserted that she belonged to that tribe. She stated that she had successfully contested the two earlier general elections of 1967 and 1971 also, as a candidate belonging to the koya scheduled tribe.

2. Four issues were framed by the trial Court on March 17, J978. K. Bapanna Dora however made an application on April 3, 1978, under Section 109(1) of the Representation of the People Act,