Judgment

Srinivasan, J.-Aggrieved by the dis­missal of his Election Petition E.P. 3/1996 on a preliminary issue, the appellant has approached this Court.

2. In the general elections held in 1996 to the Legislative Assembly of Pondicherry, the first respondent was elected from No. 7 Nellithope Constituency with 8803 votes. The appellant secured 7354 votes while the votes polled by respondents 2 to 7 are not worthy of mentioning. The 8th respondent in this appeal is the Returning Officer. The appeal is contested by the first respondent whose application O.A. No. 36/87 for striking out paras 6 to 10, 11 to 18, 19, 20, 26, 31 and 32 of the Election Petition and consequent rejection of the said petition at the threshold without going to trial was allowed by the High Court.

3. In the Election Petition, the appellant made the following allegations. The first respondent and his family were not residents of No. 7, Nellithope Assembly Constituency but the first respondent managed to get the names recorded as voters in the constituency. The first respondent indulged in character assassination against the appellant personally attacking him in T.V. interview, in printed pam­phlets distributed thr