The judgment established the principle that contracts for the execution of works undertaken by the Government, such as mining leases, disqualify a candidate from contesting elections under Section 9-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

1. The general elections to the Haryana Assembly were scheduled to be held in January/February, 2000. The petitioner Sri Hari Singh Nalwa, claimed that he was a Congress nominee for Assembly Election relating to 18-Smalkha Assembly Constituency, District Panipat. Respondent No. 1 Shri Kartar Singh Bhadana was a nominee of the "Lok Dal" for the said constituency. The rest of the respondents were the other candidates who had filed their nomination papers. The election was actually held on 22-2-2000. Respondent No. 1 was declared elected as he secured 37, 174 votes.

2. Now the petitioner has brought the present Election Petition challenging the election of respondent No. 1 by setting up a case that he got the highest number of valid votes and since respondent No. 1 was not qualified to be a candidate his nomination papers should have been rejected, and therefore, the election of respondent No. 1 be set aside being illegal and unconstitutional and the petitioner be declared as an elected candidate.

3. The general election to the Haryana Assembly was held according to the following schedule :-

@@ (i)Date of filing nomination :27-1-2000(ii)Last Date of filing nomination :3-2-2000(iii)Date of scrutiny4-2-2000(iv)Date of withdrawal and allotment of Symbol :7-2-2000(v)Date of polling :22-2-2000(vi)Result declared on :25-2-2000 The names and the votes secured by each of the candidates, who contested the election are as under :Sr. No. Name of candidate Votes secured (1)Kartar Singh Bhadana 37,174(2)Gori Shanker 421(3)Ramesh Chand 3,483(4)Hari Singh Nalwa 25,159(5)Janeshwar 723(6)Amolakh Raj 384(7)Arun 211(8)Rishi Parkash 2,343(9)Charan Singh 179(10)Balraj Chhokar 256(11)Rajender 326(12)Surender 16,722(13)P. P. Kapoor 252 @@

4 Broadly mentioned, the allegations of the petitioner are that respondent No. 1 has been holding five contracts for extraction of minor and major minerals from the Haryana State and those contracts were subsisting at the time the nomination papers were filed and as per the provisions of Section 9-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), such a person was not qualified to contest the said election being a person deriving benefit under contracts from the State within the territorial jurisdiction of which the contracts were being operated.

5. The petitioner has mentioned the brief details of the contracts which respondent No. 1 was holding. The original contracts are Ex. R. 1 to Ex. R. 5 whereas their photostat copies are Ex. P. 1 to P. 5. According to the petitioner, respondent No. 1 was holding a contract for three years from 7-4-1998 to 31-3-2000 pertaining to Alampur Quarry for extraction of road metal and masonry stone and respondent No. 1 was deriving benefit to the extent of 50 per cent. This contract was in the name of M/s. Mohan Ram and Company of which respondent No. 1 is a partner.

6. Respondent No. 1 had another contract vide lease deed dated 10-6-1980 for 20 years i.e. up to 10-6-2000 for extraction of ordinary sand and silica sand, a major mineral in respect of mines of village Anangpur, tehsil Ballabgarh, district Faridabad and was allegedly taking the benefit under the said contract and was entered into by respondent No. 1 with the State of Haryana.

7. Another contract dated 13-2-1998 was from 19-11-1997 to 31-3-2000 for lease of sand quarry of Murtzabad Zone consisting of Ghori, Gurwari, Rahimpur, Hansapur, Murtzabad and Phatasco Nagar villages. This was claimed to be extraction work. Still another contract was dated 13-2-1998 for a period of three years from 19-11-1997 to 31-3-2000 for extraction of ordinary sand with regard to Basantpur Zone consisting of Basantpur, Agwanpur, Mahabetpur, Rajpur Kalan, Manjhawali, Alipur, Sikargah, Dungerpur quarries of village Basantpur tehsil and district Faridabad.

8. Still another contract dated 13-2-1998 for the period from 19-11-1997 to 31-3-2000 with respect to sand quarries of Dalelgarh, tehsil and district F