Y.V.CHANDRACHUD, J.

(1) NINETEEN persons contested the biennial elections to the Bihar Legislative council which were held on 29/03/1974 for filling II vacancies. The appellant. Anirudh Prasad, and respondent Nos. 1 to 10 were declared as the successful candidates.

(2) THE elections having been held by the system of proportional representation by a single transferable vote, votes were counted in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Part VII of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 (hereinafter called the Rules), read with the relevant provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter called the Act). The secretary of the Bihar Legislative Assembly who acted as the Returning Officer rejected 9 ballot papers and accepted the remaining 306 ballot papers as valid. Considering that II seats were to be tilled on the basis of votes cast in 306 ballot papers, the Returning Officer, by the application of Rule 76, fixed the minimum quota of votes sufficient to secure the return of a candidate at 2551. The technical arithmetical formulae were applied during counting from time to time, votes were likewise added and subtracted from one roun