The main legal point established is that the improper rejection of a nomination paper under Section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 can lead to the setting aside of an election if it is found to be in violation of the statutory provisions.

Ajay Kr.Tripathi, J.

1. The present election petition has been filed by the petitioner calling in question the election of the returned candidate, namely Balram Singh Yadav @ Balram Singh as a member of the Bihar Legislative Council from 20-Saharsa-cum-Medhepura-cum-Supaul Local Authority Election Constituency. The prayer is for declaring the election of the respondent to be illegal and void on the ground of improper rejection of the nomination of the petitioner under Section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of People Act, 1951.

2. On 2.6.2003 based on the communication and the letter issued by the Election Commission of India election for 24 Local Authorities Constituency in the State of Bihar was announced. The Collector, Saharsa was designated as the Retuning Officer for Saharsa-cum-Madhepura-cum-Supaul Local Authorities Constituency to fill up a vacancy for the Legislative Council from the said Constituency. The election was announced on 2.6.2003, nomination papers were to be filed upto 16.6.2003. The date of scrutiny of the nomination papers was fixed on 24.6.2003 and the date of polling was fixed on 10.7.2003. The date for final declaration of the result was 14.7.2003.

3. Petitioners case is that he had all the eligibility for contesting the election aforesaid and decided to file his nomination. Altogether 51 candidates filed their nomination papers including the present petitioner. On 24.6.2003 the nomination papers of all the candidates were scrutinized and all the nomination papers were declared to be valid except the nomination of this petitioner. In otherwords, out of 51 candidates the sole rejection of a nomination paper was that of the petitioner.

4. Petitioner thereafter obtained a certified copy of the order of rejection which was furnished to him on 26.6.2003. The order in question has been brought on record alongwith the election petition as Annexure-1.

5. After going through the reasoning and verifying the facts and on due declaration of result of the election declaring Balram Singh Yadav as the successful candidate, the petitioner in his wisdom decided to file the present election petition under the Representation of People Act, 1951.

6. It is necessary to reproduce the reason for rejection of the nomination paper (Ext. 2) of petitioner because not only the issues have been formulated for deciding the election petition based on the same but the final adjudication in the present election petition will have to be rendered on the same:

7. The above reason for rejection has been extracted from Ext. 1 which is the nomination paper of the petitioner. Four issues therefore came to be framed which are noted below:

(1) Whether this election petition, as framed is maintainable?

(2) Whether this election petition is vitiated by non-joinder of necessary parties?

(3) Whether the nomination paper of the petitioner was improperly rejected by the Returning Officer?

(4) Whether the petitioner is entitled to any relief or reliefs?

8. Of the above four issues the primary issue for consideration is Issue No. 3 relating to improper rejection and the consequential relief in terms of Issue No. 4.

9. Learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that the improper rejection of the nomination paper is a valid ground for setting aside the election in terms of Section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and that is the primary relief which the petitioner is looking for. He starts with the definition of the word "Constituency" which is contained in Section 2(b)(c) and (f) of the 1950 Act. Reading of the above provisions would show that there are different definitions and territorial boundaries for different "Constituencies". Since the election in the present case was to the Legislative Council under the Local Authority Constituency it includes 14 Assembly Constituencies within what is known as Bihar Legislative Council Constituency No. 20 of Saharsa-cum-Madhepura-cum-Supaul (hereinafter