Ashok Bhan - (1.) THIS appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 4/08/2000 passed by the High Court ofOrissa at Cuttack dismissing to election petition filed by he appellant challenging the election of respondent Nos. 1 and 3 as Membersof Council of States (hereinafter referred to as"Rajya Sabha") in the election held on 18/06/1998
(2.) . Brief facts leading to the points raisedin this appeal are as follows:-The President of India issued a notification, which was published in the Gazette ofIndia on 30/05/1998, calling upon theMembers of the Electoral College of some ofthe States to elect Members to the Rajya Sabhain accordance with the provisions of The Representation of the People Act, 1951 (for short"the Act"). Pursuant to the aforesaid PresidentialNotification, the Election Commission ofIndia by a Notification of the same date calledupon the elected Members of the Orissa Legislative Assembly to elect three Members to theRajya Sabha. In consultation with the Government of Orissa, the Election Commission alsoissued another notification appointing the Secretary of the Orissa Legislative Assembly as theReturning Officer and the Joint Secretary ofthe Orissa Legislative Assembly as the Assistant Returning Officer for the said election. TheReturning Officer issued notice of election asper the following programme: JUDGEMENT_479_SUPREME7_2001Html1.htm . Pursuant to the above notification, fourpersons, i.e.. the appellant and respondents 1to 3 filed nomination papers. The appellant'scandidature was sponsored by Biju Janata Da)(hereinafter referred to as 'BJD') and that ofrespondents 1 to 3 was sponsored by the Indian National Congress Party (hereinafter referred to as 'The Congress'). . On 6/06/1998. the Returning Officer published a list of nominated candidatesindicating the names of the aforesaid four persons. After scrutiny of nomination papers theReturning Officer issued a list in Form No. 4on 8/06/1998 indicating therein that theaforesaid four persons were the vaiidly nominated candidates for the election to the RajyaSabha, 1998 by the elected members of OrissaLegislative Assembly. After the time for withdrawalwas over on 10/06/1998 and noneof the candidates had withdrawn his candidature the Returning Officer issued the list ofcontesting candidates indicating the aforesaidfour names and the political parties which sponsored their candidature.
(3.) . The polling took place on 18/06/1998 in which the candidates polled the following value of votes (value of each vote beingassessed at 100). JUDGEMENT_479_SUPREME7_2001Html2.htm . The Orissa Legislative Assembly hasgot 147 members and it seems from the aforesaid that in all 142 members had validly casttheir votes in the election held on 18/06/1998. In view of the total valid votes tendered,as per calcuation, a person having polled votesvalued at 3551 or more could be declaredelected. As Respondent No. 1 and RamaChandra Khuntia, Respondent No. 2, got 4000value of votes each in their favour, they weredeclared elected in the first round, leavingAnanga Uday Singh Deo, appellant andManmath Das respondent No. 3 for the subsequent rounds. The Returning Officer transferred the excess votes polled by RespondentNo. 1 and Respondent No. 2, Rama ChandraKhuntia as per the second preference in favour of respondent No.3 Manmath Nath Das.As a result, 444 value of votes were transferredfrom Respondent No. 1 and 444 value of voteswere transferred from Rama Chandra Khuntia.After such transfer, the value of votes polledby Manmath Nath Das stood at 3588. Thishaving exceeded the cut off point i.e., 3551value of votes, respondent No. 3 was declaredelected. The appellant could not get any morevote in the second round. Thus, the value ofvotes polled by him remained at 3500, whichwas less than the cut off number, and, thereforecould not be elected.;