Civil Appeal NCE No 735 of 1982
From the Judgment and order dated the 22nd April 1981 of the Punjab  Haryana High Court in Election Petition No 6 of 1980
KL Sharma AS Sohal and MC Phingra for the Appellant
M Yeerappa and Ashok Kumar Sharma for Respondent No 1
416 AS Pundir for Respondent No 2
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by FAZAL ALI J
This election appeal arises out of an election to the Baghapurana Constituency District Faridkot to the Punjab Legislative Assembly
The polling took place on May 31 1980 and the counting was done on June 1 1980
Tej Singh respondent secured 25694 votes whereas Avtar Singh appellant secured 25571 votes
There were three other candidates also in the field viz 1 Sathi Ruplal 2 Bhagat Puran Singh and 3 Jagdish Chander
Ruplal secured
1347 votes while Bhagat Puran Singh and Jagdish Chander secured 140 and 2856 votes
respectively
It appears that the margin between the votes secured by Tej Singh respondent and 
Avtar Singh appellant was only 123
Avtar Singh filed an election petition in the Punjab  Haryana High Court against Tej Singh alleging that he was guilty of committing corrupt practices detailed in the petition anl in the Statement of facts
Ruplal supported the appellant but Bhagat Puran Singh and Jagdish did not put in any appearance despite service and therefore the proceedings
were taken ex parte against them
Tej Singh denied having indulged in any corrupt practice as alleged by Avtar Singh
It is not necessary for us to 
go into further details because in our opinion the appeal must succeed on a short point
The main corrupt practice said to have been indulged in Tej Singh was that he had got circulated pamphlets and posters among the voters of the constituency wherein he had mentioned that Ruplal had withdrawn his candidature and any vote given to him Tej Singh would be deemed to be a vote for Ruplal and the said posters were printed not by Ruplal but at the instance of Tej Singh on a perusal of the evidence both oral and documentary adduced by the parties we are clearly of the opinion that the allegations of corrupt practices indulged in by Tej Singh have been clearly proved
The posters said
to have been printed and circulated are Annexures P 1 and P2 which appear at page 42 of the second paper book and it may be necessary to extract certain portions thereof Keeping in view the present conditions in the country it is imperative to defeat the dictatorial Congress in these elections
417 Therefore I fervently appeal to all the voters of Baghapurana Constituency to vote and elect Shri Tej
Singh the joint 
front candidate of the Akali Dal because Shri Tej Singh is the only candidate who can defeat the Congress
In the end r submit that every vote
cast in favour of section Tej Singh will be deemed to have been cast in my favour According to PW 4 Roshanlal in whose press the posters were printed the order for the printing was placed by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh
The witness goes on to state that a few lays before Tej Singh had come to his printing press and informed him that he Tej Singh would be sending some work for printing
Soon thereafter the witness was approached by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh
Roshan Lal also admitted that Tej Singh was known to him
The witness further proved exhibit P 5 and P 6 vouchers which were issued by his press and signed by him and he stated that the payment was made to him by Darshan Singh and Mukhtiar Singh
The effect of the posters was to mislead the voters so as to make them believe that one of the candidates viz Ruplal had withdrawn and any vote given to Tej Singh would be considered as a vote given to Ruplal
In other words the effect of the posters was that all the voters who would have voted for Ruplal would now cast their votes in favour of Tej Singh
As the margin of votes between the defeated and the returned candidates was very small viz 123 votes if such a misrepresentation was not made in all probability the votes would have gone to the appellant Avtar Singh and therefore the result of the election would have been materially altered
We find a good deal of substance in the argument of the appellant
Tej Singh RW 2 has not disputed that the payment of the vouchers Ex
P 5 and P 6 was made by him and the vouchers were appended by him along with the return of expenses incurred during his election campaign which was verified by him to be a true and correct statement
In these circumstances therefore the irresistible inference and inescapable conclusion that can be arrived at is that Tej Singh had actually paid for the posters which were printed at his instance and Rup Lal was not collected with the printing of the posters
Tej Singh further admitted that Bhum Raj was incharge of his election office at Moga and that Exs
P 5 and P 6 were taken by him from Bhum Raj
He further admits that whatever expenses were incurred by Bhum Raj were incurred on his behalf
In other words Tej Singh
falsely represented to the voters that the posters were circulated by 418 Ruplal whereas the same was done by or with the consent of Tej Singh
Therefore it is clear that Ex P 1 and P 2 which contained the appeal purporting to be of Ruplal were in fact printed at the instance of Tej Singh and Ruplal had no connection with the same
In these circumstances we are satisfied that the appellant has  proved beyond reasonable doubt that Tej Singh had indulged in corrupt practices particularly when the printing of the posters by Tej
Singh has been clearly admitted by him as indicated above
It is also clear to us that in view of the very narrow margin of votes 123 between Tej Singh and Avtar Singh a strong presumption and possibility that the votes polled in favour of Rup Lal would have gone to Avtar Singh cannot be ruled out and that would have doubtless materially altered the result of the election
Leaving aside other grounds taken by the appellant which were in fact not pressed before us the appellant is entitled to succeed on the ground of corrupt practices referred to above as contemplated by section 1232 of the Act having been adopted by the first respondent Tej Singh which have been fully proved
The result is that the appeal is allowed the judgment of the High Court is quashed and the election of the first respondent Tej Singh is set aside
In the circumstances we make no order as to costs
HSK Appeal allowed


Summary:
The first respondent Tej Singh won in legislative assembly election defeating the appellant by 123 votes and also 3 other candidates including Ruplal
The appellant challenged the election of Tej Singh on the ground that he was guilty of committing corrupt practices
The main corrupt practice said to have been indulged in by Tej Singh was that he had got circulated pamphlets and posters among the voters of the constituency wherein he had mentioned that Ruplal had withdrawn his candidature and any vote given to him Tej Singh would be deemed to be a vote for Ruplal and the said posters were printed not by Ruplal but at the instance of Tej Singh
Allowing the appeal  HELD 
The effect of the posters was to mislead the voters so as to make them believe that one of the candidates viz Ruplal had withdrawn and any vote given to Tej Singh would be considered as a vote given to Ruplal
in other words the effect of the posters was that the voters who would have voted for Ruplal would now cast their votes in favour of Tej Singh
As the margin of votes between the defeated and the returned candidates was very small viz 123 votes if such a misrepresentation was not made in all probability the votes would have gone to the appellant Avtar Singh and therefore the result of the election would have been materially altered
On a perusal of the evidence both oral and documentary adduced by the parties and in the circumstances of the case the irresistible inference and inescapable conclusion that can be arrived at is that Tej Singh had actually paid for the posters which were printed at his instance and Ruplal was not connected p with the printing of the posters
In these circumstances the appellant has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Tej Singh had indulged in corrupt practices particularly when the printing of the posters by Tej Singh has been clearly admitted by him
417 D E G 418 B