Appeal No 971 of 1963
Appeal by special leave from the judgment and order dated April 15 1963 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No 1096 of 1962
PA Chaudhury and T V R Tatachari for the appellant
215 HN Sanyal Solicitor General and P Ram Reddy for respondent No 3
January 13 1964
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by AYYANGAR J
This is an appeal by special leave against a judgment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh by which a Writ Petition filed by the 3rd Respondent K Brahmananda Reddy was allowed and an Election Petition filed by the appellant was directed to be dismissed
The facts giving rise to the proceedings with which the appeal is concerned are briefly as follows At the General Elections held in the month of February 1962 for the Legis lative Assembly Constituency of Phirangipuram in Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh the third respondent Brahamananda Reddy and one Chandramouli the 2nd respondent before us were the contesting candidates
The polling at the Election took place on the 26th February 1962 and the Returning Officer declared Brahmananda Reddy elected as having obtained the majority of valid votes
Thereafter the appellant who is a voter on the rolls of the said Consti tuency filed an Election Petition before the Election Com mission on April
11 1962 under section 81 of the Representation of the Peoples Act 1951 which we shall refer to as the Act
There was no formal defect in the petition it was accompanied by the requisite number of copies provided for by the Act and also by the treasury receipt evidencing the deposit of the requisite sum for security as provided by section 117 of the Act
The grounds on
which the election was sought to be set aside were various and included inter alia allegations of corrupt practices against the returned candi date as well as his election agent as also several irregularities in the polling by having the votes of dead voters recorded as well as by double voting Me petition was received by the Commission who after satisfying itself that it was in conformity with the Act had a copy of the petition published in the Official Cazette on May 17 1962 as provided by section 86 of the Act
In due course an Election Tribunal was constituted and the petition was referred to the Tribunal for trial
The returned candidate Brahmananda Reddy filed 216 his Written Statement on September 15 1962 in which the allegations of fact made in the petition were denied
Be sides what might be termed the merits of the allegations in the election petition Brahmanda Reddy raised by his Written Statement several technical objections pointing out certain defects in the petition
This appeal is not concerned either with these technical defects in the election petition or with the defence raised on the merits to the charges that were formulated in it
The merits have yet to be tried and as regards the technical objections to the petition raised in the Written Statement dated September 15 1962 they have been disposed of by the High Court and the same are not before us
A few days later on September 24 1962 Brahmananda Reddy filed a further Statement of objections to the petition raising mostly objections of a technical nature and of these the only objections which is the subject matter of the present appeal is that contained in paragraph 2 which reads and we quote the material words It is further submitted on behalf of the 1st respondent that the above petition filed us 81 of the Act is not an Election Petition 
As the requirements of section 813 of the Act are not complied with the petition is therefore liable to be dismissed us 903 of the Act as it does not comply with the provisions of sec
81 of the Act  
This second statement contained a prayer that in view of the technical objections the maintainability of the petition might be decided as a preliminary issue as the objections went into the root of the matter
Paragraph 2 extracted earlier is somewhat vague but in the arguments before the Tribunal it was explained as indicating an objection alleging non compliance with section 81 3 of the Act which runs Every election petition shall be accompained by as many copies thereof as there are respondents
mentioned in the petition and one more copy for the use of the Election Commission 217 and every such copy shall be attested by the petitioner under his own signature to be a true copy of the petition
 We shall refer later to the precise defect which was relied on in support of the case that there was a non compliance with this provision
The Tribunal acceded to this request and by its order dated November 7 1962 it decided the preliminary objections including the one just now mentioned in favour of the election petitioner and fixed a date for the trial of the petition on the merits
Brahmananda Reddy thereupon moved the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution and prayed for the issue of the Writ quashing this decision of the Tribunal and sought the dismissal of the election petition for non compliance with the provisions of the Act
The learned Judges of the High Court disallowed the other technical objections raised but held that the petition did not comply with the requirements of section 813 of the Act and for this reason they directed the dismissal of the Election Petition
Ile appellant thereafter has filed this appeal after obtaining special leave from this Court
The subject of controversy in this appeal lies in a very narrow compass
But before we deal with it it will be convenient to specify the precise defect which the learned Judges have held to be fatal to the maintainability of the Election Petition
As stated earlier the Election Petition filed was accompanied by the number of copies required to accompany the petition under section 813
The Election Petition was type written and the copies which accompanied the petition were carbon copies of the type script so there was no question of the copies being other than true  copies
The copies bore two signature in original of the Election Petitioner authenticating both the contents of the petition as well as the verification thereof
The Petitioner did not however insert the words true copy  before or above his signatures
The learned Judges of the High Court considered that this rendered the petition one not in accordance with section 813 of the Act and it is on this ground that the Election Petition filed by the appellant has been dismissed and it is the correctness of this decision that is convassed in the appeal before us
In view of the arguments addressed to us it would be necessary to set out a few of the relevant provisions of the Act which bear upon the points urged but before doing so we shall refer to article 329 of the Constitution which pro vides    329b no election to either House of Parliament or to the House or either House of the Legislature of a State shall be called in question except by an election petition presented to such authority and in such manner as may be provided for by or under any law made by the appropriate Legislature
 In accordance with this
we have the provisions of the Act and particularly those contained in Part VI commencing with section 79
Section 80 repeats the provision in the Constitution already extracted and enacts  No election shall be called in question except by an election petition presented in accordance with the provisions of this Part
 Section 81 deals with the presentation of petitions
It runs 81
Presentation of petitions
1 An election petition calling in question any election may be presented on one or more of the grounds specified in sub section i of section 100 and section 101 to the Election Commission by any candidate at such election or any elector within forty five days from but not earlier than the date of election of the returned candidate or if there are more than one returned candidate at the election and the dates of their election are different the later of those two dates
219 Explanation
In this sub section elector  means a person who was entitled to vote at the election to which the election petition relates whether he has voted at such election or not
2 An election petition shall be deemed to have been presented to the Election
Commission a when it is delivered to the Secretary to the Commission or to such other officer as may be appointed by the Election Commission in this behalf i by the person making the petition or iiby a person authorised in writing in this behalf by the person making the petition or b when it is sent by registered post and is deli vered to the Secretary to the Commission or the officer so appointed
3 Every election petition shall be accompanied by as many copies thereof as there are respondents mentioned in the petition and one more copy for the use of the Election Commission and every such copy shall be attested by the petitioner under his own signature to be a true copy of the petition Before proceeding further it is necessary to advert to the history of the provision in sub section 3 for learned counsel for the respondents laid some store by the object with which the provision was introduced
As enacted in 1951 section 81 contained only two sub sections the first deal ing with the time within which a petition had to be filed and the second with the person or authority and the manner in which the petition had to be presented in order to cons titute the presentation one to the Election Commission
At that date the Election Commission after scrutinizing the petitions to ascertain whether there were any formal defects had itself to make copies for being served on the respondents
To avoid this trouble and inconvenience to the Commission and the delay which the making of such copies 220 necessarily involved sub section 3 which we have set out earlier was introduced into section 81 by an amendment affected by Act XL of 1961
The point made based on this feature we shall reserve for later discussion
Section 82 deals with the parties who are to be impleaded in the petition and section 83 with the contents of the petition
section 831c enacts An election petition shall be signed by the petitioner and verified in the manner laid down in the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 for the verification of pleadings subsection 2 requires a similar signature and verification of schedules or annexures to the petition
Section 85 empowers the Election Commission to dismiss a petition in certain contingencies
It reads 85
If the provisions of section 81 or section 82 or section 117 have not been complied with the Election Commissi on shall dismiss the petition Provided that the petition shall not be dismissed without giving the petitioner an opportunity of being heard
 The succeeding sections deal with the trial of Election Petitions after making provision for the appointment of an Election Tribunal by section 86 but what is relevant in the pre sent context is section 90 and it is enough to quote the material words 1 Subject to the provisions of this Act and of any rules made thereunder every election petition shall be tried by the Tribunal as nearly as may be in accordance with the procedure applicable under the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 to the trial of suits Sub section 3 reads The Tribunal shall dismiss an election petition which does not comply with the provisions of 221 section 81 notwithstanding that it has not been dismissed by the Election Commission under section 85 The reasoning on which the learned Judges have based their decision shortly stated is this
It is the requirement of section 813 of the Act that an election petition should be accompanied by the number of copies specified there and equally so that the copies so accompanying shall be attest ed by the petitioner under his own signature to be a true copy of the petition
There was of course the signature of the petitioner on the copies but there was no attestation by him that it was a true copy
This constituted a noncompliance with the requirements of section 81 which brought into play the terms of section 903 of the Act which required the Tribunal to dismiss a petition which did not comply with the provisions of section 81
Though the learned counsel for the appellant made several submissions we propose to deal with only one as the same is sufficient for the disposal of this appeal
This was that in the circumstances of the case there had been a sub stantial compliance with the requirements of section 813
Before however dealing with it it will be convenient to refer to some of the submissions made to us by the learned Solicitor General appearing for the contesting respondents He submitted to us certain propositions which however we consider really unexceptionable
He said that an election petition was not to be equated to an action at law or in equity but that as the rights were purely the creature of statute if the statute rendered any particular requirement mandatory the courts possessed and could exercise no dis pensing power to waive non compliance
We consider these propositions are sound and it is in the light of these basic positions that we shall proceed to consider whether the omission to add the words true copy in the copies which were admittedly exact copies of the petition constituted a non compliance with section 81 3 as to render the petition liable to be rejected under section 903 of the Act
Learned counsel for the appellant urged that the juris diction of the Tribunal under section 903 to dismiss an ele 222 tion petition which does not comply with the provisions of section 81  was attracted only if there was a defect in the peti tion itself and that a defect merely in the copy accompanying the petition would not be a case of a petition not complying with the provisions of section 81 so as to require or even permit the Tribunal to dismiss the petition
In support of this submission the difference in the language employed in section 85 and section 903 of the Act in the matter of making reference to the requirements of section 81 was adverted to
Besides it was pointed out that both section 903 and before it section 904 were in their present form making refer ence to section 81 when the latter section did not contain the third sub section relating to copies accompanying the petition and that the content of section 903 should not be held enlarged because in 1961 sub section 3 was added to section 81 particularly because the language of section 903 was not altered to reflect the change
We are not impressed by this argument
When section 81 3 requires an election petition to be accompanied by the requisite number of copies it became a requirement for the presentation of the election petition to the Commission and therefore a condition precedent for the proper presentation of an election petition
If that is a requirement of section 81 no distinction can be drawn between the requirements of sub sections 1 and 2 and of sub section 3
We might add that if there is a total and complete non compliance with the provisions of section 813 the election petition might not be an election petition presented in accordance with the provisions of this Part within section 80 of the Act
We are therefore inclined to consider that if there had been such a non compliance with the requirement of sub section 3 not merely the Election Commission under section 85 but the Election Tribunal under section 903 would prima facie not merely be justified but would be required to dismiss the election petition
This takes us to the point as to whether the requirement of section 813 has been complied with or not
The principal submission of the learned Solicitor General was based the language employed in section 813 of the Act read in 223 the light of the direction contained in section 903 which cast on the Tribunal the duty to dismiss an election petition which did not conform to the requirements of the former
In particular he laid stress on the use of the imperative shall in section 813 when denoting the requirement of attes tation under the petitioner s signature of the copy bearing the signature being a true copy
It was in this connection that he pointed out that the provision for properly attested copies of the petition accompanying the petition was introduced by the amendment effected in 1961 and the object of Parliament was two fold first to save the time and inconvenience which the previous procedure cast on the Election Commission of itself having to make copies for service on the respondents and secondly by this means to expedite the conclusion of the trial of an election petition
He submitted that the attainment of these objects would be entirely frustrated if the respondents on whom these copies were served had still to make enquiries to satisfy themselves whether the copies were true copies without the same being asserted to be so on their face
In support he referred us to the decisions in Noseworthy vs Overseers of Buckland etc
1 and in Spice vs Bacon 2  as illustrating the degree of strictness and literal compliance which was insisted on by courts in regard to provisions of like character
The first of these cases was a registration appeal and the Act provided that a person who objected to a voter s quali fication might be heard in support of his objection if he had given notice to the voter and the manner of giving notice was by sending it by post addressed to his place of abode as described
It was held that a notice by post addressed correctly but not to the address as described was not a compliance with the requirement and that in consequence the objector could not be heard
We do not consider that this decision lays down any hard and fast rule or principle of construction which is attracted to every case where a statute calls for interpretation
In ultimate analysis the question is one of the construction of the relevant provision of the particular statutes which proceeds on the basis
of the words used understood in the context of the statute
1 LR 9 C P 233
2 LR a exhibit D 463
224 The second case raised a question as to the meaning of the word true copy in the Inn keepers  Liability Act 1863 which required that in order to obtain the benefit of the limitation of liability conferred by the Act a copy of the Act had to be exhibited at the Inn
The copy which was exhibited omitted some material words of the section which was required to be exhibited
The Court held that when a claim was made on the inn keeper for loss sustained by a guest he could not claim the benefit of the statute
We are unable to appreciate the relevance of this decision
It turned on what was meant by the word copy  in the Act and the portion which was omitted in the copy exhibited was a material portion
There is no doubt that such a copy  which differs in material particular from the original is not a copy  within the Act
In this connection we might make a reference to the decision of this Court in Murarka vs Roop Singh1 where the question as to what is a copy is elaborately discussed and some of the English decisions touching this matter have been set out
We shall have occasion to refer to Murarka s case later but for the present we need only add that the decision relied on by the Solicitor General is not at variance with what this Court has laid down in Murarka s case
The next matter to be considered stems from the submission as regards the object of Parliament in enacting sub section 3 of section 81 and that expeditious disposal of election petitions which was the object would be frustrated if sub stantial compliance with the provision was held sufficient
We are not impressed with this argument
While we are conscious of the need for expeditious disposal of election petitions and for the strict enforcement of provisions designed to achieve this purpose we cannot be oblivious to the circumstance that to read every requirement literally might equally defeat the purpose for which Part VI is inten ded viz that elections are conducted in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions framed to ensure purity and orderliness and that the candidate who has not obtained a majority of valid votes or has obtained it in flagrant 1  225 breach of the statutory provisions in not held entitled to represent the constituency
The Court had to deal with a similar question of inter pretation of words which appeared mandatory in Kamaraj Nadar vs Kunju Thevar1
One of the points which arose for consideration was whether the requirement of section 117 of the Act which then required the petitioner to enclose with the petition a Government treasury receipt of Rs 100 in favour of the Secretary to the Election Commission had been complied with by the election petitioner and section 904 of the Act which corresponded substantially to the present section 903 required the Election Tribunal to dismiss a petition which did not comply with the provision inter alia of section 117
The petitioner in that case had made the deposit of the requisite amount in the institutions named in the section but the deposit was made in favour of the Election Commission and not in favour of the Secretary to the Com mission as required by statute
It was contended that the petition did not conform to the provisions of section 117 and had therefore to be dismissed by the Tribunal
This Court rejected this submission and after adverting to the purpose of the provisions held that this was fulfilled by the deposit made and that though the requirement as to deposit was mandatory the same was complied with by the deposit made
We consider that this reasoning is not irrelevant to the construction of section 813 of the Act either
In this connection we might refer to the decision of this Court in Murarka vs Roop Singh 2 in which this Court had to consider a question closely related to that now under debate
That case was also concerned with certain defects similar to what we have in the appeal before us
The defects which were there relied on by the returned candidate as justifying or requiring the dismissal of the Election Petition fell into several categories which included non compliance with the requirements of section 813
There as here the petition was accompanied with the re 11959 SCR 583
2  134 159 SC 15 226 quisite number of copies as specified in section 813 but what was urged was as regards certain defects in the copies filed
These defects fell into two types
First there were two matters which it was stated rendered the copies filed not true copies 
If the expressions copy  or true copy  were read as exact copies of the original the copies filed did not satisfy that test
The two defects were 1 The original petition contained the signature of the petitioner at the foot of the petition as required by section 83 1 c of the Act
In the copy filed there was no copy of this signature
To that extent therefore the copy was not an exact copy
The second matter under this head was that the verification in the copy served on the appellant did not exactly correspond to that in the original in that in the latter one of the paragraphs was stated to be true to the personal knowledge of the petitioner while in the former that paragraph was omitted from this group
The other type of defect which was claimed to constitute noncompliance with section 813 was that the words true copy  with the signature of the petitioner underneath were not put down in one of the annexures to the petition copies of which were annexed to the copies of the petition filed
The order of the Returning Officer rejecting the nomination paper of the petitioner was filed with the original petition as an annexure to it and certified copies of that order were annexed to the copies of the petition
But this certified copy did not contain an endorsement stating that it was a true copy  with the signature of the petitioner
The High Court had held that so far as the defect in not reproducing the signature in the petition was concerned it was cured by the fact that every page of the copy of the petition was attested to be a true copy and therefore it would not matter if the last page did not contain the signature
As regards the second the High Court held that the failure to include the paragraph in the verification was only a clerical defect which had crept in through oversight and as regards the other that it was no defect at all
This decision was upheld by this Court holding that the word copy in section 813 meant a copy which was substantially so and which did not 227 contain any material or substantial variation
By copy  in section 813 was meant not an exact copy but only one so true that nobody by any possibility misunderstands it not being the same as the original
Applying this test this Court came to the conclusion that there was no failure to comply with the last part of section 813 with the result that section 903 of the Act was not attracted
This Court besides left open the question as to whether any part of section 813 was directory or whether any portion of it was mandatory
In the present case also we do not propose to deal with the larger question as to whether section 813 or any portion of it is merely directory
In view of the decision of this Court it would be clear that if there is a substantial compliance with the requirement of section 813 the election petition cannot be dismissed by the Tribunal under section 903
The question then is whether on the facts above stated there is or is not a sufficient and substantial compliance with section 813
We have already pointed out that the appellant has complied with the following requirements 1 The petition has been accompanied by the requisite number of copies
2 The copies that accompanied the petition were true copies
3 Each of those copies bore the signatures of the petitioner
If the signature of the petitioner whose name is set out in the body of the petition is appended at the end surely it authenticates the contents of the document
Now in regard to this the learned Judges of the High Court themselves ob served after referring to the terms of section 813 No doubt what is necessary is a substantial compliance with the requirement of attestation
For instance if it is proved that the election petitioner has signed animo attestendi and omitted the words true copy  by mistake or inadvertently there is a substantial requirement of the compliance of section 813
The 228 same may be said if the relative positions of the words true copy  and of the signature one below the other are not correct
 They however held that as there was no evidence of the sig nature having been appended animo attestendi there was non compliance with section 813
The learned Solicitor General while not disputing the correctness of the observations of the learned Judges just extracted pressed upon us that the signature at the end of the copy was meant only as a copy of that in the original petition and could not satisfy the requirement as to attestation of the copy
He also submitted that the position would have been different if there were two signatures instead of one at the end of the copy even if the words true copy  were omitted to be put down
In that case he said one signature could be treated as representing the copy of the signature on the original and the other might be taken to have been made animo attestendi
We do not however consider that there is really need for so much refinement when one has to look at whether there is a substantial compliance with section 813 seeing that a signature in origisignatures now found on the copies were intended to authenticate the document to which it is appended viz the copy it would only mean that the copy did not reproduce the signature in the original
There is no compelling necessity to hold that the signatures were merely intended to be a copy of those on the original in order to spell out a noncompliance with the requirement of this provision
If the nal was not needed on the copy and a writing copying out the name of the signatory would suffice
The decision of this Court in Murarka s case1 is authority for the position that the absence of a writing in the copy indicating the signature in the original would not detract the copy from being a true copy
In the circumstances we consider that there has been substantial compliance with the requirement of section 813 in the petition that was filed by the appellant and the learned Judges were in error in directing the dismissal of the petition
The appeal is accordingly allowed and the order of the High Court dismissing the petition is set aside
As owing 11964 3 section R 573 229 to the filing of the Writ Petition there has been a considerable delay in the trial of the Election Petition we express the hope that the petition would be heard and disposed of at an early a date as is conveniently possible
The appellant will be entitled to his costs here and in the High Court which will be paid by the contesting third respondent
Appeal Allowed


Summary:
The third respondent was declared elected to the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh in the general election held in 1962
The appellant a voter of the constituency filed an election petition challenging 214 the election of the third respondent on several grounds including corrupt practices
The petition was accompanied by the requisite number of copies which were true copies and each of them bore the signature of the petitioner
But there was no attestation at the foot of the copies that they were true copies
The third respondent raised various preliminary objections and the Election Tribunal rejected all of them
Thereupon he filed writ petition in the High Court praying for the issue of a writ quashing the Tribunal s order
His main contention was that since the copies of the petition did not contain an attestation stating that the copies were true copies there has been a violation of the mandatory provision of section 803 of the Representation of the People Act 1951
The High Court accepted the contention and issued a writ as prayed for
The present appeal was filed with special leave granted by this Court
HELDi If there is a total or complete non compliance with the provisions of section 813 the election petition might not be an election petition presented in accordance with the provisions of the part withins
80 of the Act
iiBy the expression copy in section 813 it was meant not an exact copy but only one so true that nobody by any possibility misunderstands it not being the same as the original
Murarka vs Roop Singh   referred to
Noseworthy vs Overseers Buckland etc LR 9 C P 233 and Spice vs Bacon  distinguished
iiiIn the present case the signatures on the copies cannot be held to have been merely intended to be a copy of those on the original since a signature in original was not needed on the copy and writing or copying out the name of the signatory would suffice
The absence of a writing in the copy indicating the signature in the original would not detract the copy from being a true copy
The facts and circumstance of the case show that there has been a substantial compliance
with the requirement of section 813
The wider question whether section 813 or as part thereof is mandatory or directory is left open
The appeal is allowed
Murarka vs Roop Singh  and Kamaraj Nadar vs Kunjer Thevar followed