# DHAE.AM SINGH RATHI v. HARI SINGH M.L.A. & ORS

- **Citation:** [1975] Supp. 1 S.C.R. 469
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1975-05-02
- **Case number:** Civil Appeal No. 84 of 1973
- **Bench:** N. L. Untwalia, s. MURTAzA FAzAL ALI
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/dhae-am-singh-rathi-v-hari-singh-m-l-a-ors-6537
- **Pages:** 4

## Headnote

'
Representation of the People Act, 1951-S. 33(1)-Rr. 2(2) and (4) of
the Rules-Failure to supply postal address in the nomination paper-Effect ofFailure of proper authentication. of tl11a11b n1ark-Efject of.
The appellant challenged the dcction of the respondent to the· State Assembly
on the ground that the nomination papers of two persons \11ere
improperly
rejected by the Returning Officer. The High Court held that the nomination
papers suffered from defects of non compliance with the requirements of s. 33 ( 1)
of the Representation of People Act and so were rightly rejected.
Dismissing the appeal to this Court,
A
B
c
HELD : (i) The High Court was right in its finding that the non1ination
paper of one of the persons was not improperly rejected by the Returning · D
Officer.
From a reading of s. 4 of the Rules and Form 28 it would be clear
that non-supp]y of postal address of the candidate or supplying such cryptic
address which virtually amounts to non-supply of address i~ a failure to comply
\<ith the provisions of s. 33(1) of the Act.
[471-G]
{2) (a) Nomination paper of the second person had been rightly rejected
by the· Returning Officer. The defect that the nante of the constituency of the
proposer was not given in the nomination form was of a substantial character.
[472-BJ
(b) There was clear violation of r. 2(2) of the Rules.
A thum\1 mark has
to be placed by the proposer on the nomination paper in the presence of the
Returning Officer and such officer, on being satisfied as to his identity, has to
attest the mark as being the mark of that person. · This has not been done in
this case. [ 4 72-BJ

## Text

\
469
DHAE.AM SINGH RATHI
v.
HARI SINGH M.L.A. & ORS.
May 2, 1975
[N. L. UNTWALIA AND s. MURTAzA FAzAL ALI, JJ.J
'
Representation of the People Act, 1951-S. 33(1)-Rr. 2(2) and (4) of
the Rules-Failure to supply postal address in the nomination paper-Effect ofFailure of proper authentication. of tl11a11b n1ark-Efject of.
The appellant challenged the dcction of the respondent to the· State Assembly
on the ground that the nomination papers of two persons \11ere
improperly
rejected by the Returning Officer. The High Court held that the nomination
papers suffered from defects of non compliance with the requirements of s. 33 ( 1)
of the Representation of People Act and so were rightly rejected.
Dismissing the appeal to this Court,
A
B
c
HELD : (i) The High Court was right in its finding that the non1ination
paper of one of the persons was not improperly rejected by the Returning · D
Officer.
From a reading of s. 4 of the Rules and Form 28 it would be clear
that non-supp]y of postal address of the candidate or supplying such cryptic
address which virtually amounts to non-supply of address i~ a failure to comply
\<ith the provisions of s. 33(1) of the Act.
[471-G]
{2) (a) Nomination paper of the second person had been rightly rejected
by the· Returning Officer. The defect that the nante of the constituency of the
proposer was not given in the nomination form was of a substantial character.
[472-BJ
(b) There was clear violation of r. 2(2) of the Rules.
A thum\1 mark has
to be placed by the proposer on the nomination paper in the presence of the
Returning Officer and such officer, on being satisfied as to his identity, has to
attest the mark as being the mark of that person. · This has not been done in
this case. [ 4 72-BJ
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 84 of 1973
From the judgment and order dated the 8th day of December,
1972 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh in Election
Petition No. 13 of 1972
B. R. L. lyangar and R. L. Kohli, for the appellant.
J. P. Goyal and R. A. Gupta, for respondent No. 1.
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
E
F
G
UNTWALIA, J.-This is an appeal under
section 116A of
the
Representation of the People Act, 1951-hereinafter called the Act,
by the election petitioner whose petition challenging the election of
H
respondent no. 1 (for brevity-the respondent) has been dismissed
by the High Court.
Eventually the only ground which could be
pressed in the Hill? Court to challenge the election of the respondent
~as that the. nommat10n papers .of two pers~ns namely Shri Jagan
Nath and Shn ~rabha Ram were improperly reiected b~ the Returning
'j
Officer. The High Court framed only two issues for trial and decided
--!o'i
470
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
(1975] SUPP· S.C.R.
A them against the appellant. It has held that the nomination papersboth of Jagan '.~ath and Prabha Ram suffered from defects of substantial
character and, there:fore, they were rightly rejected by the Returning
Officer.
Jagan Nath filed two nomination papers in the prescribed Form
D No. 28 prescribed under rule 4 of the Conduct of the Election Rules
1961-hereinafter referred to as the Rules.
In both the papers in
the column "His postal address" the only thing written was-"Smalkha
Mandi". The Returning Officer rejected both the nomination papers
<Jf Jagan Nath on the ground that the candidate had not given the
name of his father and his full address.
The name given as Jagan
Nath and address as Smalkha Mandi were not sufficient. The ReturnC ing Officer described if as a technical error fit to be rectified but because
there was nobody present on behalf of the candidate at the time of
the scrutiny of the nomination papers the rectification could not be
made. Hence the nominations were rejected. Following the decisions
of this Court in Brijendralal Gupta and another v. Jwalaprasad and·
others(') and in Prahladdas Khandeiwal v. Narendra Kumar Salve(')
D the High Court has held that the nomination papers suffered from a
defact of non-compliance with the requireljlent of section 33 (1)
of
the Act and
that the
defect was of
a substantial character.
Onconsideration ,of the evidence adduced before it, it held :
E
"Thus in the established circumstances of the case, it was
manifest that the mention of Smalkha Mandi only, in the
nomination papers was no more than an
apology of an
address.
It was, according to Mr. Joginder Pal Narang's
testimony in this Court hopelessly incomplete. To my mind
also it was equal to not giving any address at all."
F
We concur in the view of the High Court that filling up the·
column of postal address of the candidate in 'the nomination paper is
necessary. The High Court has referred to several provisions in the
Act and the Rules to point out the. purpose of supplying the postal
address.
It appears that the name of the post office concerning
Smalkha Mandi, Smalkha village, Model Town etc. was Smalkha.
r
The name of the post office was not Smalkha Mandi.
On the face
G of the address- given in the nomination papers there was the defect
of incorrect mention of the name of the post office.
The name of
the District was also not given. It has come in the evidence of the
respondent that there were other place~ of the names of Smalkha and
Smalkha Mandi in the States of Haryana and Rajasthan. Even ignoring the defects aforesaid the High Court has noticed on consideration
of the evidence and specially of Jagan Nath himself that the postal
H address given in either of his nomination forms was so very incomplete that no letter addressed to him to that address could possibly
be delivered to him.
There were several persons of the name of
Jagan Nath in Smalkha Mandi, Smalkha village.
Jagan Nath was ..
(J) [1960] 3 S.C.R.650.
(2) [1973] 2 S.C.R.157.
(
•
..
.•
'
D. s. RATH! v. HAR! SINGH (U11twalia, J.)
471
serving at the shop of a Sweet meat Seller, Railway Road, Smalkha
A
Mandi and was resident of Bharbbujanwali Gali. The interesting part
of this case is that Jagan Nath did not file an election petition. It
was filed by the brother of an unsuccessful candidate.
Eventually
Jagan Nath was impleaded as a respondent in the election petition.
He filed a written statement and examined himself as R.\V. 5.
His
definite case was that until and unless some more details were given
B
in his postal address no letter on that skeleton descriptio11 as given in
the nomination papers could -be delivered to him by the postal authorities.· Taking the totality of the circumstances the High Court has
rightly held that no postal address in effect was given on either of.
the nomination papers of Jagan Nath .
A nomination paper ha~ to be delivered to the Returning Officer
by the candidate or his proposer in accordance with section 33(1)
of the Act. The nomination paper must be completed in the prescribed form. The requirement of sub-section ( 4) is .that the Retur_ning
Officer shall satisfy himself on the presentation of a nomination paper
c
that the names and electoral roll numbers of the candidate and 'his
proposer as entered i!l the nomination paper are the same as those
entered in the electoral rolls.
In certain types of defects detected
at the time of the presentation of the nomination paper the proviso
to sub-section ( 4) empowers the Returning Officer to overlook such
mistakes er to get them rectified as the case may be.
Generally
speaking the kinds of defects mentioned in the proviso would be of
a substantial character so as to jnstify the rejection of a nomination
paper.
There may, however, even amongst these types of defects
be some such that necessitates their rectification and if not rectified
tliat may make the nomination paper liable to be rejected. But the
defect of non-supply of postal address is not covered by the proviso
to sub-section ( 4) of section 33 of the Act. It is a defect which
rails for consideration at the time of the scrutiny of the nomination
papers. If the defect is a substantial one then the nomination paper
has got to be rejected.
Sub-section (4) of section 36 enjoins the
Returning Officer not to reject any nomination paper on the ground
of any defect which is not of a substantial _character. But if it is of
a substantial character then sub-section (2) provides that the Returning Officer shall reject the nomination paper when "there has been a
failure to comply with any of the provisions of section 33 or section
34:" Reading Rule 4 of the Rules and Form 28 it would be noticed
that ~on-supply of yosta.1 address of the candidate or supplying such
cryptic address which virtually amounts to non-supply of address is
a failure to comply with the provisions of section 33 (1). Hence we
agree with the findings of the High Court that Jagan Nath's nomination papers were not improperly rejected by the Returning Officer.
·
D
E
F
G
The nomination paper of Prabha Ram suffered from more serious
H
types of defects.
The Returning Officer rejected the nomination of
Prabha Ram on the grounds (1) that the name of the Constituency
of the proposer was not gi~en in the no;::'nation paper ; (2) that the
numbers of electoral roll given in the nomination paper did not tally
· with the candidate's number in the true copy of
the electro! roll;
IOSC/75-31
472
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[1975] SUPP· S.C.R.
A
( 3) that at the name of the proposer one more name was given and the
entries in the electoral roll did not tally with the numbers mentioned
by the proposer and the candidate in the nomination paper. Following
the dictum of this Court in the case of N. T. Veluswami Thever v.
C. Raja Nainar and others(') the High Court has taken into consideration another defect, in that the thumb impression of one of the
B
two proposers had not been authenticated in the manner required by
law.
Even ignoring grounds 2 and 3 forming the basis of the order
of the Returning. Officer rejecting the nomination paper of Prabha
Ram as being possibly covered by the proviso to section 33 ( 4), the
first defect pointed out by the Returning Officer was of a substantial
character.
It made it obligatory for him to reject the nomination
paper.
Over and above that defect the High Court has rightly
C noticed another fatal defect. Section 2(i) o~ the Act says :
" 'sign' in relation to a person who is unable to write
his name means authenticate in such manner as may be
prescribed."
D
The prescribed manner of authentication i~ to be found in Rule 2(2)
of the Rules.
A thumb mark has to be placed by the proposer on
the nomination paper in the presence of the Returning Officer and
such officer on being satisfied as to his identity has to attest the mark
as being the mark of that person.
There was, therefore, a clear
violation of this rule also. We see no reason to differ from the view
E
of the fligh Court that the nomination paper of Prabha Ram was not
improperly rejected by the Returning Officer.
For the reasons stated above the appeal fails and is dismissed
with costs payable to respondent no. 1 alone.
Appeal dismissed.
P.B.R.
(1) A.LR. 1959 S.C. 422.
\
•
'
I
f'