S.C.Misra, J.

1. The appellant, Sant Prasad Singh, filed a petition questioning the validity of the election of the respondent, Dasu Sinha, to the Bihar Legislative Assembly from the Naubatpur Assembly Constituency. The poll was held in the constituency on the 25th February, 1962, and the result was declared on the 28th of February, 1962. The appellant-petitioner made the election petition as a voter from that constituency, the other candidates Being Bhubneshwar Sharma, Tek Narain Lal Yadav, Jugeshwar Prasad, Mahendra Dusadh and J.N. Sahai. The relevant dates can be briefly set out as follows :

20-1-62Last date for filing the nomination papers.

22-1-62Date of scrutiny.

25-2-62Date of polling.

27-2-62Date of counting.

28-2-62Date when the result was announced.

Respondent Dasu Sinha secured 16,723 votes and Bhubneshwar Sharma obtained the next highest number of votes, being 16,422. Thus, the margin between the two was of 301 votes. The grounds mentioned in the election petition for setting aside the election of the respondent were as follows :

(1) false personation of voters; (2) double voting, in the sense that some voters were enrolled in two constituencies and they voted a