Case: Sri Mairembam Prithviraj @ Prithibiraj Singh Vs. Shri Pukhrem Sharatchandra Singh

Civil Appeal No. 2829 of 20161. The Appellant has filed this appeal aggrieved by the judgment of the High Court of Manipur at Imphal by which his election to the Manipur Legislative Assembly from Moirang Assembly constituency was declared as void2. A Notification was issued for election to the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly on 04.01.2012. The Appellant belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Respondent who was sponsored by the Indian National Congress (INC) filed their nominations within the time prescribed. There was no other nomination filed. The Respondent objected to the nomination of the Appellant at the time of scrutiny on the ground that a false declaration relating to educational qualification was made by the Appellant. The Returning Officer directed the Appellant to submit documents in proof of his educational qualification as declared in the affidavit filed under Form 26. The Appellant failed to produce any document to prove his educational qualification in spite of which the Returning Officer accepted the nomination of the Appellant. Polling took place on 28.01.2012 and the counting of votes was held on 06.03.2012. The result was declared on the same day. The Appellant secured 14,521 votes and the Respondent secured 13,363 votes. The Appellant was declared elected as MLA, Moirang Constituency3. The Respondent challenged the election of the Appellant by filing an election petition in the Guwahati High Court seeking a declaration that the Appellants election was null and void, that the Respondent should be declared as duly elected and that a criminal proceeding should be directed to be initiated against the Appellant under Section 125-A and 127 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). Apart from the ground of improper acceptance of nomination, the Respondent also alleged corrupt practices against the Appellant4. The Appellant denied the allegation of false declaration. According to the Appellant, the declaration made by him that he passed Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2004 from Mysore University was a clerical error. The Respondent abandoned the allegation of corrupt practices and other electoral malpractices during the trial of the election petition in the High Court. The High Court framed six issues which are as follows:i) Whether the Returning Officer of 27th Moirang AC has illegally accepted the nomination paper of the respondent or not?ii) Whether the election of the respondent had been materially affected by the acceptance of the nomination paper of the respondent by the R.O. of 27th Moirang A/C or not?iii) Whether the respondent had filed false affidavit in respect of the highest education qualification in the Form, in which the respondent had mentioned MBA Mysore University or whether it was merely a clerical error?iv) Whether the petition lacks material facts or not?v) Whether the election petition is liable to be dismissed for not putting the words attested to be true copy of the petition on each and every page of the petition by the petitioner himself or not; or on any of the defects raised by the respondent in his written statement?vi) Whether the petitioner is entitled to the relief claimed in the writ petition?5. Issue No. 5 pertains to attestation of the petition not being made properly. The objection raised by the Appellant to the maintainability of the election petition was that only the front page of the election petition had the words Attested to be true copy. Issue No. 5 was answered in favour of the Respondent. The High Court considered the main controversy pertaining to the filing of false affidavit regarding the educational qualification by the Appellant in a detailed manner. There is no doubt that the Appellant filed Form 26 in which he mentioned his educational qualification as MBA from Mysore University in 2004. After careful consideration of the material on record and various judgments cited by the parties, the High Court concluded that the declaration made by the Appellant in Form 26 about his educational qualification as MBA from Mysore University was false. The plea of the Appellant that the defect in Form 26 was due to a clerical error was rejected. The contention of the Appellant that providing wrong information about the educational qualification was not a defect of substantial character was also rejected. The Appellant contended that the Respondent failed to plead and prove that the result was materially affected as required under Section 100 (1) (d) of the Act. The High Court did not accept the said contention on the ground that there were only two candidates in the fray in which case it was not necessary to prove that the result of election of the returned candidate was materially affected. The High Court further held if it is found that the Appellants nomination was improperly accepted, the result of his election stood automatically affected materially. The High Court on the basis of the above reasons declared the election of the Appellant as void. The Appellant has filed this appeal challenging the sameCivil Appeal No. 2829 of 201625. This appeal is filed by the Petitioner in the election petition challenging that part of the judgment dated 29.02.2016 of the High Court Manipur at Imphal, by which the relief that he should be declared to be elected was rejected. The Appellant contested the election as a candidate of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Respondent No.1 was declared to have been elected on 28.01.2012. The election of the First Respondent was set aside by the High Court in the election petition filed by the Appellant. The Appellant also sought for a relief that he should be declared to have been elected. Such relief was rejected by the High Court. Hence, this appeal26. After the result of the election was declared on 28.01.2012, the Appellant resigned from NCP and joined Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP). To a question posed by the Court during the recording of his evidence, the Appellant stated that he tendered resignation from NCP in the latter part of 2013, that he joined BJP and he continued to be a member of the BJP. In January, 2016, the Appellant filed an application for amendment to the election petition. He intended to insert additional submissions relating to his expulsion from NCP on 23.12.2013 and the representation made by him to the President NCP Manipur to cancel the expulsion order. He also wanted to bring on record the fact that his enrolment to the membership of BJP was rejected on 18.01.2016. He further stated in the application that the order of expulsion by the NCP was revoked by an order dated 21.01.2016

Court's reasoning:
Civil Appeal No. 2829 of 201618. The contention of the Appellant that the declaration relating to his educational qualification in the affidavit is a clerical error cannot be accepted. It is not an error committed once. Since 2008, the Appellant was making the statement that he has an MBA degree. The information provided by him in the affidavit filed in Form 26 would amount to a false declaration. The said false declaration cannot be said to be a defect which is not substantial. He was given an opportunity by the Returning Officer to produce the relevant document in support of his declaration. At least at that point of time he should have informed the Returning Officer that an error crept into the declaration. He did not do so. The false declaration relating to his educational qualification cannot be stated to be not of a substantial character. It is no more res integra that every candidate has to disclose his educational qualification to subserve the right to information of the voter. Having made a false declaration relating to his educational qualification, the Appellant cannot be permitted to contend that the declaration is not of a substantial character. For the reasons stated supra, we uphold the findings recorded by the High Court that the false declaration relating to the educational qualification made by the Appellant is substantial in nature23. Mere finding that there has been an improper acceptance of the nomination is not sufficient for a declaration that the election is void under Section 100 (1)(d). There has to be further pleading and proof that the result of the election of the returned candidate was materially affected. But, there would be no necessity of any proof in the event of the nomination of a returned candidate being declared as having been improperly accepted, especially in a case where there are only two candidates in the fray. If the returned candidates nomination is declared to have been improperly accepted it would mean that he could not have contested the election and that the result of the election of the returned candidate was materially affected need not be proved further. We do not find substance in the submission of Mr. Giri that the judgment in Durai Muthuswami (supra) is not applicable to the facts of this case. The submission that Durai Muthuswami is a case of disqualification under Section 9-A of the Act and, so, it is not applicable to the facts of this case is also not correct. As stated supra, the election petition in that case was rejected on the ground of non-compliance of Section 100 (1) (d). The said judgment squarely applies to this case on all fours. We also do not find force in the submission that the Act has to be strictly construed and that the election cannot be declared to be void under Section 100 (1) (d) without pleading and proof that the result of the election was materially affected. There is no requirement to prove that the result of the election of the returned candidate is materially affected once his nomination is declared to have been improperly acceptedCivil Appeal No. 2829 of 2016