The petitioner has filed the present election petition to declare

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the election of the respondent / returned candidate as void.

The facts of the case as pleaded in the Election Petition are as

under :

1.

The President of India by notifications issued under sub-

section (2) of Section 14 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951

(hereinafter referred to as “the R.P. Act of 1951” for short) published

in Official Gazettes dated 2.4.2019, 10.4.2019, 16.4.2019 and

22.4.2019 vide Annexure P/1 to P/4 for conducting the election of

the Lok Sabha Constituencies in the State of M.P. to elect the

members to the House of the People (Lok Sabha). The election was

to be held in four phases in the State of M.P. Accordingly, the

Election Commission of India issued Press Note for the

announcement of the schedule for General Elections, 2019 for the

Lok Sabha on 10.3.2019 and according to which, the schedule of

election in respect of different Parliamentary Constituencies in the

State of M.P. was also issued vide Annexure P/5. The election

program in respect of Parliamentary Constituency No.24 Ratlam was

as under :

29.4.2019 Last date for filing of nomination.

30.4.2019

Scrutiny of nomination.

2.5.2019

Last date for withdrawing of candidature.

19.5.2019 Date of Polling.

23.5.2019 Counting of votes.

27.5.201

Date before which the election shall be completed.

2.

Under the aforesaid election program the petitioner submitted

his Nomination papers from the Indian National Congress to contest

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the election from Parliamentary Constituency No.24 Ratlam and

likewise the respondent also submitted his Nomination paper as the

candidate of the Bhartiya Janata Party. As per schedule, the election

was held on 19.5.2019. Thereafter, the result of the said

Parliamentary Constituency was declared on 23.5.2019 vide

Annexure P/6. The final result was issued by the Election

Commission of India in Form 20 vide Annexure P/9. The present

petitioner secured 605467 votes and the respondent secured 694243

votes, thus, the respondent won the election by the margin of 88776

votes accordingly, and the result was notified by the Election

Commission of India.

3.

Being aggrieved by the aforesaid the petitioner has filed the

present election petition challenging the election of the respondent

solely on the ground enumerated under Section 100 (1)(d)(iv) of the

R.P. Act of 1951.

4.

According to the petitioner, voting in all the Parliamentary

Constituencies in the entire country was held by Electronic Voting

Machine (EVM) under Rule 49A of the Conduct of Election Rules,

1961. The apex Court in Civil Appeal No.9093/2013 (Dr.

Subramanian Swamy V/s. Election Commission of India) has

directed the Election Commission of India to introduce Voter

Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) together with the existing

system of EVM. Thereafter, Rule 56-D was introduced w.e.f.

14.8.2013 for the introduction of the system of VVPAT allowing any

candidate or his agent to apply in writing to the Returning Officer to

recount the printed paper slips in the drop box of the printer in

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respect of any polling station or polling stations.

5.

It is further submitted that the Election Commission of India

issued instruction/order dated 13.10.2017 vide Annexure P/11 for

verification of VVPAT paper slips – pilot testing under which the

verification of VVPAT paper slips was to be done randomly selected

one polling station per Assembly Constituency on a pilot basis

mandatory. It is further submitted that the Apex Court in the case of

N. Chandrababu Naidu V/s. Union of India reported in (2019) 15

SCC 377, directed for the increase in number from one polling

station per Assembly Constituency to five polling stations per

Assembly Constitution for verification of VVPAT paper slips. After

the aforesaid judgment of the Apex Court, the Election Commission

of India issued an instruction/order dated 21.5.2019 for mandatory

counting and matching the result of VVPAT