Chandra vs M.Thangmuthu & Anr

2) The Nominations for the Rajapalyam assembly constituency were scrutinized on 21.04.2006 and after scrutiny of the nominations, there were 13 candidates in the fray including the appellant and the respondent no.1. The appellant contested as a candidate from the AIADMK party and was allotted the "two leaves" symbol. The respondent no.1 contested the election as an independent candidate and was allotted the "Finger Ring"

According to the petitioner, the respondent No.1 (appellant in this appeal) filed her nomination papers claiming herself to be a member of a Scheduled Caste by filing false declaration and suppressing material facts. According to him, the appellant professes Christianity and her actual name is Glory Chandra and she is born to Christian parents. He claims that the husband of the appellant is Soosaimanickam and he too professes Christianity. He alleges that she studied in CSI High School, Batlagundu and not in Government High School, Devathanampatty as claimed in her nomination paper and as per school records, she belongs to Christian Pallan 3 community. He also claims that the community certificate issued by the Tahsildar, Rajapalayam was procured by her, by exercising political clout and suppressing material facts and the said certificate was issued to the appellant within two days of the receipt of the application. He further asserts that even after the alleged conversion of the respondent, the voters list published for the year 1999, showed her name to be Glory Chandra. He also places reliance on the fact, that, the husband of the appellant made an application dated 27.4.1998, to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited for a new phone connection, where his name is stated as Soosaimanickam. The petitioner also relies on the entries in original Birth Register of 1997, pertaining to the births in Erumalainaickenpatti Village and they refer to the birth of a girl child to the respondent, whose then name is referred as Glory Chandra and the child's father's name is referred as Soosaimanickam and their religion referred to as Christianity. Therefore, it is asserted that the respondent No. 1 is Christian by birth and continues to 4 profess Christianity and therefore could not have contested from a reserved constituency.

250/- was given by the respondent's husband's family to the community known as Devendrakula Velalar 5 Samooham. She claims that her community members are the members of Devendrakula Velalar Samooham. She obtained a community certificate in 1997, certifying the fact that she belonged to the Hindu Pallan community. She specifically states that she did not find it necessary to inform the electorate of her conversion as she was born and brought up as a Hindu and practiced Hinduism. She states that she used to worship Hindu gods since childhood in the village temples and the nearby Kamatchiamman temple. When she attained puberty, the requisite ceremonies were performed according to Hindu customs. She also contested and won the Panchayat Ward no.3 election held in the year 2001. In the said elections no one filed any objection to the nomination filed by her. She clarifies that a daughter was born to her on 20.6.1997 and not the date mentioned in the Birth Register for the year 1997. She also denies that she intentionally did not file the Birth Certificate of her two daughters so as to reveal her religion. She also asserts that it is her brother Sudhakar Gnanaraj who had studied 6 in Government High School, Devathanampatty, which is a co-educational institution and he assumed that the respondent being her sister, would have studied in the same school, and therefore, mentioned the same in the declaration filed along with the nomination papers, and the appellant came to Virudhunagar only on the morning of 20.4.2006 which was the last day for submitting the nomination papers and everything was done in a hurry. Her brother Sudhakar Gnanaraj informed her that he prepared the nomination papers and it is enough if she signs, and she signed the declaration in a hurry because she had no reason to suspect that any mistake would have occurred. She further states that it was an inadvertent error that had crept in and does not help the election petitioner in any manner. She also claims that the averments in the election petition are false and have been brought about by the defeated candidate at the instigation of the rival DMK party. In sum and substance she would assert that she belongs to scheduled caste and has been accepted by the community as such.

Though in her testimony, the appellant had stated that the original conversion certificate was issued in the evening on 27.08.1994 and it was received by her uncle Santhakumar from Arya Samaj, Madurai and remained in his custody. The Certificate was not delivered to her and after the filing of the election petition, she asked her uncle Santhakumar to hand over the certificate to her. Thereafter, being informed by her uncle about the loss of the original certificate, she requested him to obtain a duplicate copy of the certificate and accordingly Santhakumar obtained Ex.R.13-duplicate copy of conversion certificate. Agreeing with most of the contentions of the election petitioner, the High Court has come to the conclusion that the burden of proof placed on appellant was not discharged 1 satisfactorily. In conclusion, the Court has held that the appellant belongs to Pallan Christian Community and she could not have contested the Assembly elections from reserved constituency and, therefore, declared her election as void. However with regard to declaring the next candidate as successful, the High Court has stated that the election law in this country does not recognize such a recourse to be adopted. Submissions of the learned counsel for the appellant:

33) We, therefore express our disapproval to the findings of the High Court on this issue.

Requirements of Petition under Representation of Peoples Act :

52) It is a settled legal position that an election petition must clearly and unambiguously set out all the material facts which the petitioner is to rely upon during the trial, and it must reveal a clear and complete picture of the circumstances and should disclose a definite cause of action. In the absence of the above, an election petition can be summarily dismissed. To see whether material facts have been duly disclosed or whether a cause of action arises, we need to look at the averment and pleadings taken up by the party.

53) In the case of V.S Achutanandan v. P.J Francis [(1999) 2 SCR 99], it was held that failure to plead material facts is fatal to the election petition and no amendment of the pleadings is permissible to introduce such material facts after the time limit prescribed for filing the election petition. 6

54) One cannot file an election petition based on frivolous grounds.

The facts presented must be clear, concise and unambiguous. All the above cases and provisions, though do not deal directly with the issues in this case, they go on to emphasize that an election result, where the people elect their representatives cannot be taken lightly. For an election result to be annulled, there must be positive evidence to prove illegality of the election. The natural corollary is that the person who files an election petition, must have a clear and definite case, to prove that the election was illegal. Therefore the burden of proof shall lie on the petitioner filing the election petition.