Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
M.C. Mahajan, C.J., B.K. Mukherjea, Vivian Bose, N.H. Bhagwati and T.L. Venkatarama Aiyyar

JUDGMENT

B.K. Mukherjea, J.

1. This appeal, which has come before us on special leave, is directed against the judgment and order of the Election Tribunal, Jabalpur, at Nagpur, dated the 30th April, 1953, whereby the Tribunal declared the election held on the 29th December, 1951, for the double member Lakhnadon Legislative Assembly Constituency, to be wholly void under section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of the People Act (hereinafter called "the Act").

2. To appreciate the contentions that have been raised by the parties to this appeal, it would be necessary to state briefly the material facts. The Lakhnadon Legislative Assembly Constituency in Madhya Pradesh is a double member constituency, one of the seats in which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The appellant and respondents Nos. 1, 3, 5 and 7 were duly nominated candidates for the general seat in the said constituency, while respondents Nos. 2, 4 and 6 were nominated for the reserved seat. No objection was taken before the Returning Officer in respect of the nomination of either the appellant or respondent No. 2, Vasant Rao. Out of these eight candidates, respondents Nos. 5, 6 and 7 withdrew their candidature within the prescribed period under section 37 of the Act and the actual contest at the election was between the remaining five candidates, namely, the appellant and respondents Nos. 1 to 4. The votes secured by these five candidates at the polling were found to be as follows :-

3. Accordingly the appellant and respondent No. 2 were declared elected to the general and reserved seat respectively, under section 66 of the Act, and the results were duly published in the Madhya Pradesh Gazette on 8th of February, 1952. On the 14th of May, 1952, the respondent No. 1, Raghuraj Singh, filed an election petition against the appellant and the other respondents, under section 81 of the Act, praying that the said election to the Lakhnadon Legislative Assembly Constituency be declared wholly void or in the alternative the election of Vasant Rao and/or that of the appellant, Durga Shankar Mehta, be declared void. There was a string of allegations made in the petition accusing the appellant of various corrupt practices in the matter of securing votes but none of these are material for our present purpose, as the Tribunal, by a maj........