D. Falshaw, J. - (1.) TWO petitions (Civil Writs Nos. 29 and 733 of 1958) under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution have been filed by Giani Kartar Singh challenging orders passed by an Election Tribunal sitting at Chandigarh in the following circumstances. In the general election in which polling took place on the 3rd of March, 1957, the petitioner was declared elected as a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly from the Dasuya constituency (Hoshiarpur District). His election was challenged in a petition filed on the 18th of April, 1957, by Pritam Singh, respondent, who merely claims to be a Voter in the said constituency and is not one of the defeated candidates. The petition filed by Pritam Singh is very brief and in fact the grounds on which he sought that the election should be declared void cover only about half a typed page. The grounds with which we are concerned in the present petitions are items (b), (c) and (d) in paragraph 3 of the petition as follows: (b) That the return of election expenses filed by respondent No. 1 is false in material particulars and amounts to corrupt practice. (c) That the respondent No. 1 had not maintained the acoounts in accordance with law. (d) That he had prepared bogus and false accounts.
(2.) MR . Rama Prasad Mookerjee was appointed as the Election Tribunal to hear the petition, and on the 20th of July, 1957, at the first hearing, Pritam Singh filed an application purporting to be under section 90(5) of the Representation' of the People Act for permission to supply further particulars regarding certain allegations made by him regarding corrupt practices in the petition. The detailed allegations were contained in the annexures to the petition under section 90(5) and we are concerned with two of them, annexures 'A' and 'B' Although it is not stated in the heading to annexure 'A' that it was meant to relate to the allegation in paragraph 3(b) of the original petition, this seems to be its purpose. The heading reads - In his return of election expenses respondent No. I has shown Rs. 4557 -12 -0, as his total expenses. Information with the petitioner shows that from Messrs. Gian Chand Mehr Chand of Darapur alone respondent No. 1 through his agents Inder Singh and Jagir Singh bought petrol and mobiloil in connection with his election, of the value of Rs. 4889 as per details given below: This is followed by three typed pages of detailed items relating to the purchase of petrol and oil between the 31st of January and the 6th of March, 1957,'which add up to Rs. 4889. Annexure 'B' is headed - Relating to corrupt practice alleged in paragraph 3(d)" and it proceeds - At the time of submitting the return of election expenses the respondent No. 1 asked Messrs. Gian Chand Mehr Chand through his agents Inder Singh and Jagir Singh to prepare false vouchers on the pretext of preparing duplicates of vouchers lost by the respondent. The vouchers relating to price of petrol and mobiloil submitted by respondent No. 1 along with the return of election expenses are those false vouchers prepared by Messrs. Gian Chand Mehr Chand at the instance of respondent No. 1. Respondent No. 1 has thus prepared bogus and false accounts corresponding to the above -mentioned false vouchers.
(3.) THEN follows a list of false vouchers bearing dates from the 13th of January 1957, to the 3rd of March 1957, totalling about Rs. 1000.;