P.K.Deb, J.

1. Both these election petitions arise out of the same Assembly election of 291 Jamshedpur East Assembly Constituency held in the year 1995.

2. Mr. Phatik Chandra Ganguly, who is the petitioner in Election Petition No. 1/95 (R) is a voter of that constituency having Serial No. 907, Part No. 147. He has challenged the election on the ground that the Returning Officer illegally rejected the nomination paper of Sri Vijay Kumar Dev and Sri Haldhar Soren.

3. In the Election Petition No. 2 of 1995 (R), the same election has been challenged by the election petitioner Sri K.P. Singh, who contested the election as a Congress candidate and according to him, he got majority number of votes but due to miscounting and so many irregularities and illegalities done at the time of counting, the Respondent No. 1 was declared elected on getting maximum number of votes although he did not get such number of votes.

4. Regarding the Election Petition No. 1, although the same has been heard analogously with the Election Petition No. 2, neither the election petitioner Phatik Chandra Ganguly appeared to depose in favour of his election petition nor he has adduced any evidence in support of his contention regarding illegal rejection of the nomination paper of Sri Vijay Kumar Dev and Sri Haldhar Soren. So, the Election Petition No. 1 becomes a redundant one having no evidence being adduced in support of that election petition.

5. In the Election Petition No. 2, the Election petitioner contended, inter alia, that although in total 52 candidates were in the fray, the main contest was in between the Election Petitioner and the Respondent No. 1 Raghubar Das, who happens to be a B.J.P. candidate and because of the illegal and irregular counting, the Respondent No. 1 was declared as returned. In the whole of the election petition, no-where it has been stated as to by how much votes the Respondent No. 1 had won the election but in evidence it has come that the Respondent No. 1 had won the election by a margin of huge votes namely 1100 votes. All the candidates in the fray have been made parties in the Election Petition No. 2 of 1995, According to the election petitioner, he secured majority of valid votes in the impugned election but he was not declared elected on account of miscounting of ballot papers and thus the petitioner has been calling in question the election of the Returned candidate in order to protect the purity of the process of election. He has also prayed for inspection and then recounting of ballot papers in terms of the grounds taken in the election petition. Before going into the grounds, it must be stated that as per the notification issued by the Election Commission of India, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Dalbhum, Jamshedpur, who was the Returning Officer, had announced the election programme for the election in 291 Assembly Constituency for Jamshedpur East. The last date for filing nomination paper was 23.1.1995, the date of scrutiny of the nomination paper was 24.1.1995, the date of withdrawal of the candidature was 27.1.1995, date of allotment of the symbol was 27.1.1995, date of polling was 7.3.1995 but it was rescheduled to 11.3.1995. The petitioner, fifty one respondents and many others filed their nomination papers for the said election and on scrutiny, the Returning Officer, rejected the nomination papers of fifteen candidates and some candidates withdrew their candidature. After expiry of the period of withdrawal, in total 52 candidates remained in the fray. The list of those candidates with their affiliated party and symbols have been mentioned in a list in para 8 of the election petition. The election petitioner Sri K.P. Singh was in the Serial No. 49 while the returned candidate-Respondent No. 1 Raghubar Das was in the Serial No. 35 in the ballot paper. After the polling was completed on 11.3.1995, counting was announced on and from 29.3.1995 and the final result of the election was declared by the Returning