Caste certificates issued prior to 1996 remain valid; improper rejection of nomination based on authority understanding leads to election void.

1. The present election petition has been filed by the Petitioner herein whereby he has challenged the rejection of his nomination paper by the Returning Officer of 12 Shahdol Parliamentary Constituency to which the bye - election was held on 19/11/16. The said Constituency is reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates. The Respondent Gyan Singh has been elected in the said bye election. It is the contention of the Petitioner that as the nomination paper of the Petitioner has been wrongly rejected by the Returning Officer, the election ought to be set aside under the provisions of S.100(1)(c) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act, 1951'). No.12 Shahdol Parliamentary Constituency, according to the Petitioner, comprises of 8 Assembly Constituencies, which are mentioned in para 3 of the petition. In paragraph 4 of the petition, the Petitioner states that he is a Scheduled Tribe and is 'Majhi' by caste and is in possession of the caste certificate issued by the Naib Tahsildar, Jaithari, which reveals his caste as Majhi. A copy of the caste certificate has been annexed to the petition as Annexure P / 1. In paragraph 5, the Petitioner has given the schedule of the by - election which was held in the above - mentioned Constituency. From 26/10/16 to 02/11/16 the nomination papers were to be filed. On 03/11/16 the nomination papers were scrutinized. 04/11/16 was the last date fixed for the withdrawal of candidature and allotment of symbol. 19/11/16 was the date of polling and 22/11/16 was the date fixed for counting of votes and declaration of results.

2. The Petitioner is stated to have retired in the year 1997 from the post of Peon from the Education Department. He states that he has contested several elections on the basis of his caste certificate. In paragraph 7, it has been averred that the Petitioner contested the election from 85 Sohagpur Assembly Constituency in the year 2003 and lost the said election. In paragraph 8, it is averred that in the year 2008, the Petitioner contested the election from 87 Anuppur (ST) Assembly Constituency and lost the election. Thereafter, in the year 2014 when General Election to the Parliament was held, the Petitioner contested the election as a member of the 'Majhi' community from the No.12 Shahdol (ST) Parliamentary Constituency, but one Dalpat Singh of the Bhartiya Janata Party was the returned candidate. As Dalpat Singh died due to his illness before the completion of the tenure, the bye elections were held in November 2016, which has given rise to the present election petition.

3. In paragraph 11, the Petitioner avers that he had submitted his nomination paper on 02/11/16 along with the caste certificate which showed that the Petitioner belonged to the 'Majhi'. There is no dispute that the Petitioner has earlier contested elections as a member of the Majhi Caste.

4. The Petitioner further avers that on the date of scrutiny, the election agent of the Respondent one Anil Gupta raised an oral objection on the nomination paper of the Petitioner stating that the Petitioner did not belong to the Majhi caste and therefore, he had no right to contest the election from the Constituency which was reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidate. In paragraph 13, the Petitioner states that on the basis of the oral objection raised by the election agent of the Respondent, the Returning Officer rejected the nomination paper of the Petitioner on the ground that in the service record of the Petitioner, his caste is shown as 'Dheemar' and the certificate of caste issued by then then Naib