JUDGMENT

V. BALAKRISHNA ERADI, J:— This being an election appeal filed under S. 116A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter called the Act) calling, for urgent determination, as soon as the hearing of arguments in the appeal was completed we announced our decision by passing the following order:

"We are of the view that for reasons which we shall state later, the nomination paper of the appellant was validly accepted by the Returning Officer and we accordingly allow the appeal and set aside the order of the High Court invalidating the election of the appellant. There will be no order as to cost of the appeal.".

We now proceed to set out our reasons for reaching the aforesaid conclusion.

2. General Elections to the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha were held in May, 1982. Ganu Ram, the appellant herein, Rikhi Ram Kaundal (first respondent) and three others had contested the 23-Gehrwin Assembly Constituency seat which is a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates only. The nominations filed by all these five candidates had been accepted as valid by the Returning Officer and the polling took place on May 19, 1982. The result of the election was announced on. May 22,