K.B .SRINIVAS Vs. CHANDRASHEKAR B. PATIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is the defeated candidate and the first respondent is a returned candidate in the election held on 8/6/2018 to the Karnataka Legislative Council from the North East Graduates Constituency, consisting of the districts, namely, Bidar, Kalburagi, Yadagiri, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary and Davanagere (Harapanahalli).

(2.) The counting of the votes was held on 12/6/2018. The petitioner lost the election and the difference in votes polled in his favour and the first respondent was 321. In the election petition, the petitioner has taken the ground that the postal ballots were not properly accounted; 45 postal ballots voted in his favour were rejected by the returning officer without giving any justification.

(3.) The second ground taken by the petitioner is that for indicating first preferential vote, numerical figure '1' was written within the circular geometrical shape in some ballot papers, and in some other ballot papers the same numerical was written inside the geometrical shape, 'square'. When the counting was taken up, the returning officer instructed the counting supervisor to consider those ballot papers in which numerical '1' was written within a circle as valid and reject the ballot papers in which numerical '1' was marked in the square. This resulted in the petitioner loosing 1500 votes which were cast in his favour. There was no justification for rejecting the ballot papers which contained the marking of the first preferential votes within the square. This was an arbitrary decision taken by the returning officer at the time of counting, though he was not empowered to take such a decision.