Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, J.

The petitioner, a voter in No. 125 Eravipuram LA Constituency, filed a petition on 10.6.2006 before the Returning Officer stating that the third respondent, a candidate from that constituency in 2006 general elections, had given wrong information in the affidavit filed along with the nomination paper. It was alleged that the information given by the third respondent that he had passed the SSLC examination conducted by the Board of Public Examination, Kerala in 1959 was false. The plea was that only a person who had passed the SSLC examination could claim that he is a holder of SSLC, while the third respondent is not a holder of such certificate. The Board of Public Examinations, Kerala come into being only in 1965 and any entry in that regard in the affidavit was also therefore wrong.

2. The Returning Officer issued Ext.P5 taking the view that as nobody had raised any objection at the time of scrutiny of the nomination paper, the nomination was accepted and there is no provision to initiate action to prosecute a candidate for which documentary evidence is a must. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), thereafter, directed the Returning Officer to