C.A.VAIDIALINGAM,J.

(1) THE appellant, Pratap Singh, was declared elected to the Haryana State Assembly from Bahadurgarh constituency in the first mid-term elections which took place on 14/05/1968. There were three contestants from this constituency the appellant Pratap Singh being the Congress Party candidate, the respondent Hardwari Lal being the Swatantra Party candidate and the independent candidate Ram Narain, being the third candidate. The appellant obtained 23,414 votes and the respondent obtained 19,279 votes and the appellant was declared duly elected to the Assembly. It is not necessary to refer to the third candidate Ram Narain, as he is not before us in these proceedings.

(2) ON an election petition filed by the respondent herein for setting aside the election of the appellant, the High court of Punjab and Haryana set aside the appellants election by its judgment dated 21/01/1969, and this appeal, under S. 116-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (hereinafter referred to as the Act), is directed against the said decision.

(3) IN the election petition before the High court, the respondent had challenged the election of the