Rajagopala Ayyangar, J.- These are petitions for the issue of writs of prohibition and certiorari respectively and arise out of the Election Petition No. 86 of 1957 on the file of the Election Tribunal Madurai.

The Election Petition (No. 86 of 1957) was for setting aside the election of the petitioner Sri Muthiah Chettiar to the Madras State Assembly from the Karaikudi Constituency in Ramanathapuram district. At the election to this Constituency held on 1st March, 1957, Sri Muthiah Chettiar whom we shall hereafter refer as the petitioner, and Sri Sa. Ganesan (to be referred to as the respondent) were the main contesting candidates. As many as eight persons filed nominations for the seat and lour withdrew their nomination papers and the other four went to the polls. The petitioner was declared elected on 5th March, 1957 as having obtained 24, 223 votes as against 23,365 votes secured by the respondents. The two other candidates obtained a very small number of votes and they might be ignored for the purpose of these proceedings. On 15th April, 1957 the respondent filed the Election Petition numbered as E.P. No. 86 of 1957 and the only prayer that it contained was for a declaration th

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