The court emphasized the importance of conducting fair and accurate elections, particularly in the context of local governance such as Panchayat Board elections.

( 1 ) IN this Writ petition the petitioner seeks an appropriate writ to quash the order, dated 2nd December, 1953, of the Election Commissioner, Vijayawada, in O. P. No. 25 of 1953.

( 2 ) THE petitioner and the 3rd respondent were rival contestants at the election of the President of the Panchayat Board of Boddapadu in Vijayawada taluk of the krishna District, held on 2nd May, 1953. The 2nd respondent in the present writ petition was the Election Officer appointed by the Regional Inspector of municipal Councils and Local Boards.

( 3 ) FOR the purpose of electing members to the panchayat, the village of Boddapadu was divided into three wards and each of them had been allotted two seats, one seat in the 3rd ward having been reserved for the scheduled castes. All the voters in all the wards are to elect the president. The panchayat is a Minor panchayat and the election is by show of hands. The number of voters in Ward No. 1 is 281 in Ward No. 2, 265 and in Ward No. 3, 311, which makes a total of 857 voters in the village. The actual number of votes polled at the election was 252 in Ward no. , 225 in Ward No. 2, and 260 in Ward No. 3, which makes a total of 737.

( 4 ) AFTER determination of the number of votes secured by each of the member candidates, the names of the 3rd respondent and the petitioner, who were the contestants for the presidentship, were called and the voters in each of the wards, 1, 2 and 3, it appears, were asked by the Election Officer to raise their hands in favour of each of the candidates. The election Officer recorded the following votes for the 3rd respondent and the petitioner respectively.

Click Here to Read the rest of this document