Judgment

J. S. VERMA

( 1 ) THIS is an appeal by the returned candidate under Section 116-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (for short "the R. P. Act") against the judgment dated 5/8/1991/6/8/1991 in Election Petition No. 21 of 1990 by S. N. Variava, J. of the Bombay High court whereby the election of the appellant to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 49-Kurla Legislative Constituency held on 27/2/1990 has been declared to be void on the ground under Section 100 (1 (b) for commission of corrupt practices under Ss. (3 and (3-A) of the R. P. Act. By the said judgment, the learned Judge has decided the election petition and made the order under Section 98 declaring the election of the appellant to be void but the findings on Issues 2 and 5 have been reserved for being recorded after the inquiry under Section 99 of the R. P. Act is concluded against Chhagan Bhujbal, Pramod Mahajan, Bal Thackeray, Manohar Jeshi and Pramod Navalkar to whom notices have been issued under Section 99 of the R. P. Act by the order made therein. The ultimate conclusion in the final order made in the impugned judgment is quite involved because of the unusual mode adopted of deciding the elec