The main legal point established in the judgment is that a defect in the nomination papers should be considered substantial only if it defeats the purpose for which the information was required, and if the defect is not of a substantial character, it should be condoned.

1. At the last General Election held in March 1957, the appellant was declared duly elected to the Legislative Assembly of this State from the General Seat of the Devicolam Constituency. In April the 1st respondent, a candidate whose nomination had been rejected by the Returning Officer, filed the present petition for a declaration that the election of the appellant was void on the ground mentioned in S.100(1)(c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The petition has been allowed by the Election Tribunal, Kottayam, and hence this appeal.

2. The 2nd respondent was returned from the reserved seat, and against him no relief has been claimed. He may be ignored altogether and we shall here after refer to the 1st respondent (namely, the petitioner before the Tribunal) as merely the respondent.

3. The only question is whether the rejection of the respondent's nomination was improper. If it was, it is not disputed that in view of S.100 (1) (c) of the Act the election of the appellant has to be set aside. The competence of the respondent to maintain the petition was never in question,

4. The last date appointed for making nominations was the 29th January 1957, and on the previous day, at about 2 P. M., the respondent delivered two nomination papers, Exts. P-2 and P-5, to Pw.1, the Assistant Returning Officer for the constituency, at his office in Peermade. Being an elector, not of the Devicolam but of the Alleppey Constituency, he also produced before Pw.1, Ext. P-3, a printed copy of the part of the electoral roll of the Alleppey Constituency in which his name appeared. He was accompanied by his two proposers, Pw. 4, Devasia Varkey by name, and one Mohamed Kutty who is not a witness. Pw.1 checked Exts. P-2 and P-5 with Ext. P-3 and also with Ext P -1, a copy of the electoral roll of the Devicolam Assembly Constituency officially supplied to him and, after satisfying himself (albeit mistakenly) as required by S.33 (4) of the Act, that the names and electoral roll numbers of the respondent and his proposers as entered in the nomination papers, Exts. P-2 and P-5, were the same as those entered in the electoral rolls, Exts. P-3 and P-I, signed the endorsement of delivery on the nomination papers and issued to the respondent the prescribed receipts and notices of scrutiny.

5. It is not in dispute - nor was it before the Tribunal - that the respondent was an elector of the Alleppey Constituency eligible for election and that his two proposers were electors of the Devicolam Constituency and therefore qualified to act as proposers. Pw. 4, Devasia Varkey, the proposer in Ext. P-2 is Serial No. 811 in Part No. 115 of the electoral roll for the Devicolam Assembly Constituency while Mohammed Kutty the proposer in Ext. P-5 is Serial No. 927 in Part No. III of the same roll. But, in furnishing the electoral roll numbers of the proposers in the nomination papers, Exts. P2 and P5, while their serial numbers in the respective parts and the name of the constituency were correctly entered, the serial numbers of the parts in the roll were wrongly entered as 60, instead of 115 and 111 respectively, in both papers.

6. It might be as well to explain at this stage how, not merely the respondent and his two proposers but also the Assistant Returning Officer, Pw. 1, who received and checked the papers, came to make this mistake. The village of Peruvanthanam to which both the proposers belong was originally part of the Manimala Constituency which was Constituency No. 60 of the Travancore-Cochin State. On the fresh de-limitation following the formation of the Kerala State, the Manimala Constituency was abolished and this particular village was added to the Devicolam Constituency which is Constituency No. 48 of the Kerala State. To prepare the electoral roll of the new Devicolam Constituency the parts appertaining to the villages newly attached to it had to be separated from the old rolls and assigned new seri