Judgment

FAZAL ALI, J.:- This election appeal is directed against a judgment dated May 15, 1979 of the Gauhati High Court by which the High Court accepted the election petition filed by the petitioner Aju Newmai and set aside the election of the appellant, N. C. Zeliang who had been declared elected from the No. 6 Tening Assembly Constituency of the State of Nagaland. For short, the respondent No. 1, namely, the election petitioner in the High Court, shall be hereinafter referred to as the petitioner and N. C. Zeliang, who won the election, as the appellant.

2. The elections were held in the year 1977 and were contested by the petitioner, the appellant and others. The appellant contested the election as a Congress candidate with the symbol of cow and a calf, whereas the petitioner contested on the ticket of the United Democratic Front (U. D. F.) whose election symbol was Cock. The other candidates in the field were Jangkhosei and Paokholun. We are, however, not concerned with these candidates. It appears that the appellant polled 2224 votes as against the 2207 votes polled by the petitioner and thus defeated the petitioner by a margin of 17 votes, the total votes in the constituency