MICHAEL B. FERNANDES v. C.K. JAFFER SHARIEF AND ORS .

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by G PATIANAIK, J. This appeal is directed against the Order dated 16th June, 2000, passed in Election Petition No. 29 of 1999. The aforesaid Election Petition had been filed by the appellant, challenging the validity of the election to the House of People from the Bangalore North Parliamentary Constituency, in which election, respondent No. I was declared to have been elected. In the election petition, the Election Commissioner, the Returning Officer and the H Chief Electoral Officer of the State of Karnataka had been arrayed as

MICHAEL B. FERNANOES v. C.K. JAFFER SHARIEF [PATTANAIK, J.] I 055 respondents 6, 7 and 8. Those respondents filed an application before the A High Court of Kamataka for their deletion inter alia on the ground that under Section 82 of the Representation of the People Act, it has been clearly indicated that who should be the parties to an election petition and since they have been unnecessarily unpleaded, they should be deleted. The High Court by the impugned judgment having delt:ted the said respondents 6, 7 and 8 from the B array of parties, the present appeal has been preferred.

Mr. R. Venkataramani, the learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant contended that th" election petition having been filed, challenging the validity of the election of respondent No. I, on the grounds contained in Section IOO(l)(d}(iii)(iv) and non-compliance with the provisions of the C Constitution and the Rules by the election machinery having been alleged, respondents 7 and 8 at least ought to have been held to be proper parties and there could not have been an order of deletion. According to the learned counsel, these respondents 7 and 8 having falied to conform to the mandatory guidelines enactt:d by the Election Commission of India, as contained in the hand book of the Returning Officer and those guidelines being treated as an integral part of the rules as well as Article 324 of the Constitution, respondents 7 and 8 became proper parties to the election petition, in view of the nanire of allegations pertaining to their official conduct. That being the po~ition, the learned Single Judge, "'ho was in session of the matter, erroneously deleted the said respondents 7 and 8. Mr. Yenkataramani however seriously does not challenge the order of ddetion, so far as respondent No. 6 is concerned.

Mr. S. Muralidhar, the learned counsd appearing for the Election Commission, on the other hand submitted that the question of parties to an election petition is concluded by two earlier decisions of this Court in the case of Jyoti Basu and Ors. v. Debi Cihosal and Or.1 . [ l 982 J l SCC 691 and F 8, Sundara Rami Reddy v. Eleclinn Commission uf India and Ors., [ 1991) Supp. 2 SCC 624 and therefore. the Hii!h rourt wa~ wholly justified in directing the deletion of those respondents trum the array of parties and by such deletion, there has been no illegality requiring interference by this Court. Mr. Muralidhar, further contended that the Representation of the People Act G being a full code by itself, prescribing the procedure to be followed and indicating the parties to be arrayed to an election petition and respondents 7 and 8, not coming within the ambit of the said provision, the High Court rightly deleted them and that order need not be interfered with by thi.~ Court. The learned counsel lastly urged that in view of the nature of allegation~ made, the person making those allegations is required to prove th.: same and H

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A therefore, there is no justifiable reason, why the Election Officer or the Returning Officer should be permitted to be added as a party to the election petition. Jn order·to examine the correctness of the rival submissions, it would be necessary for us to have a bird's eye view of the relevant provisions of the Act and the different case laws on the point. But one thing must be borne in mind that in the case in hand, the allegations made were in relation to the use of voting electoral machines, under Section 61 A of the Act. The gravamen of the allegations in the election petition are that the Returning Officer as well as the Chief Electoral Officer had not complied with several provisions of the Conduct of Election Rules and respondents 7 and 8 had not acted in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India. The relevant paragraphs of the election petition pertaining to the infraction of Rules committed by respondents 7 and 8 are paragraphs 20a, 20d, 20f, 25 and 28. The Representation of the People Act, 1951 [hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'] is an Act, providing for the Conduct of elections to the House D of Parliament and to the House of Legislature of each State and it provides the qualifications and dis-qualifications for Membership of those Houses, the Corrupt Practices and other offences in connection with such elections and the decisions of doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with such elections. The general procedure at elections has been enumerated in Chapter Ill. Section 61 of the Act provides the procedure for preventing personation E of electors and Section 61A which was inserted by A.ct I of 1989 w.e.f. 15.3.1989, deals with Voting machines at elections. Section 66 provides for declaration of result and Section 67 provides for submission of a Report of the result to the appropriate authority and the Election Commission and in case of an election to a House of Parliament, to the Secretary of that House F by the Returning Officer, soon after the declaration of the result. It also provides for publication of the name of the elected candidate in the official gazette. Part VI starting with Section 79 deals with disputes regarding elections. Under Section 80 of the Act, no election shall be called in question except by an election petition presented in accordance with the provisions of this Part. Presentation of petition is dealt with in Section 81 and such petition could be presented on one or more of the grounds specified in sub-section (I) of Section JOO and Section IOI. Section 82 stipulates as to who shall join as respondents to an election petition. Section 82 may be quoted herein-below in extenso :- "Sec. 82. Parties of the petition:- A petitioner shall join as respondents to his petition-

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(a) where the petitioner, in addition to claiming declaration that the A election of all or any of the returned candidates is void, claims a > further declaration that he himself or any other candidate has been duly elected, all the contesting candidates other than the petitioner and where no such further declaration is claimed, all the returned candidates; and B (b) any other candidate against whom allegations of any corrupt practice are made in the petition."

Section 83 provides as to what should contain in an election petition and Section 86 in Chapter Ill deals with trial of election petitions. Section 87 is

1058 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2002] l S.C.R.

A and all others are excluded and, therefore, only those may be joined as respondents to an election petition, who are mentioned in Section 82 and 86(4) and no others. An argument had been advanced in that case that even if somebody may not be a neces~ary party under Section 82 of the Act, but yet he could be added as a proper party as provided in Order I Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure. But the Court rejected that contention on a B finding that the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code apply to election disputes only as far as may be and subject to the provisions of the Act and any rules made thereunder and the provisions of the Code cannot be invoked to permit which is not permissible under the Act. It was in that context the Court further observed that the concept of 'proper parties' is and remain alien to an election dispute under the Act. This decision was followed in B. Sundara Rami Reddy 's case, (1991) Supp. 2 SCC 624, referred to supra and it was reiterated that the concept of 'proper party' is and must remain alien to an election dispute under the Act and only those may be joined as respondents to an election petition, who are mentioned in Sections 82 and 86(4) of the Act and no others. The Court in this case added that however desirable and expedient it may appear to be, none-else shall be joined as respondents. Mr. Venkataramani, the learned senior counsel, appearing for the appellant, contended that the law enunciated in the two decisions and the observations made are too wide and while Section 82 casts an obligation on an election petitioner to join those mentioned in clauses (a) and (b) as party respondent, it does not put an embargo for addition of any other person in an appropriate case, depending upon the nature of allegation made and consequently, the expression "any other" in the two decisions referred to above, must be held not to have been correctly used. Mr. Venkataramani relied upon the observations made by this Court in MS. Gill's case, [1978) 2 SCR 272, wherein the Court had observed that the Constitution contemplates a free and fair election and vests comprehensive responsibilities of superintendence, direction and control of the conduct of elections in the Election Commission. This responsibility may cover powers, duties and functions of many sorts, administrative or other, depending on the circumstances and submitted that the basis of electoral democracy being a free and fair election and fairness imports an obligation to see that no wrong-doer ci:ndidate benefits from his own wrong. In case where allegations are made against the Returning Officer or the Chief Electoral Officer with n:gard to the conduct of the ~lectiun, there should be no bar to array them as parties and according to Mr. Venkataramani in Gill's case, the Chief Election Commissioner was a party and, therefore, · this Court in Jyoti Basu as well as the subsequi!nt case, having not noticed the aforesaid judgment of the larger Bionch, the latti!r decision will be of no

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assistance. We are not in a position to accept the submission of Mr. A Venkataramani inasmuch as in Gi/l 's case, an order of the Election ~ Commissioner was under challenge by filing a writ petition and it was not an election petition under the provisions of the Representation of the People Act. There is no dispute with the proposition that a free and fair electoral process is the foundation of our democracy, but the question for consideration B is, whether by indicating in the Act as to who shall be arrayed as party, the Court would be justified in allowing some others as parties to an election petition. For the aforesaid proposition, Gill's case is no authority. Mr. Venkataramani then relied upon the decision of Calcutta High Court in Dwijendra Lal Sen Gupta v. Hare Krishna Konar, AIR (1963) Calcutta 218, where the question came up for consideration directly and the Calcutta High C Court did observe that the Returning Officer may nevertheless in an appropriate case be a "proper party" who may be added as party to the election petition and undoubtedly, the aforesaid observation supports the contention of Mr. Venkararamani. Following the aforesaid decision, a learned Single Judge of the Bombay High Court in the case of H.R. Gokhale v. Bharucha Noshir C. and Ors., AIR ( 1969) Bombay 177, had also observed that the observations of Shah, J in Ram Sewak Yadav 's case, AIR (1964) SC 1249 in paragraph (6) is not intended to lay down that the Returning Officer can in no event be a proper party to an election petition. But both these aforesaid decisions of the Calcutta High Court a~d Bombay High Court had been considered by this Court in Jyoti Basu case and the Court took the view that the public policy and legislative wisdom both seem to point to an interpretation of the provisions of the Representation of the People Act which does not permit the joining, as parties, of persons other than those mentioned in Sections 82 and 86(4). The Court also in paragraph (12) considered the consequences if persons other than those mentioned in Section 82 are permitted to be added as parties and held that the necessary consequences would be an unending, disorderly election dispute with no hope of achieving the goal contemplated by Section 86(6) of the Act. In the aforesaid premises, we reiterate the views taken by this Court in Jyoti Basu 's case and reaffirmed in the latter case in B. Sundara Rami Reddy and we see no infirmity with the impugned judgment, requiring our interference under Article 136 of the Constitution. This appeal accordingly faj)s and is dismissed.

V.S.S. Appeal dismissed.