Krishna Iyer, J. - (1.) Since we are affirming the conclusion reached by the High Court, there is hardly any need for a long judgment. Even so, the brief facts may be set out to get a hang of the issue agitated before us.
(2.) In May, 1977, there was the General Election to the Constituencies in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. We are concerned with 34 Anuppur Legislative Constituency. It happened that one Tejraj Dwivedi, an Advocate by profession, was a candidate. He filed his nomination paper but omitted to comply with the requirement of section 33 (5) of the Representation of the People Act (for short, the Act). That provision reads thus: "Sec. 33 (5):Where the candidate is an elector of a different constituency, a copy of the electoral roll of that constituency or of the relevant part thereof or a certified copy of the relevant entries in such roll shall, unless it has been filed along with the nomination paper, be produced before the Returning Officer at the time of scrutiny." It is obvious that there is a mandatory obligation cast on the candidate to produce before the Returning officer a certified copy of the relevant entry in the electoral roll showing his name if the candidate is an elector from a different constituency. In this particular case he was an elector from a different constituency, namely, Sohagpur. The failure to produce the certified copy of the electrol roll evidencing his being an elector of that constituency is fatal because the defect is of a substantial nature. Section 36 (4) provides: "Sec. 36 (4):The Returning Officer shall not reject any nomination paper on the ground of any defect which is not of a substantial character.
(3.) Two short questions that call for decision are:whether, as a fact, the candidate Tejraj Dwivedi, did produce a certified copy as required by section 33 (5) and was told that he may take it back (This is the contention put forward by the appellant); and (2) whether, if he did not produce such a certified copy, the defect was of a substantial character resulting in invalidation of the nomination.;