# ' , ZIY AUDDIN BURHANUDDIN BUKHARI v. BRIJMOHAN RAMDASS MEHRA & ORS - **Citation:** [1975] Supp. 1 S.C.R. 281 - **Court:** Supreme Court of India - **Decided:** 1975-04-25 - **Bench:** M. H. Beg, A. Alaqiriswami, N. L. Untwalia - **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/ziy-auddin-burhanuddin-bukhari-v-brijmohan-ramdass-mehra-ors-6518 - **Pages:** 18 ## Headnote Representation of the People Act-Section 123(2), (3) & 3 (A)-Corrupt practice-Appeal 011 the gro1111d of relig~on-Pn11noti1.1g_ feelings of hatr.ed c:nd en1nity between different classes-Aniend1nent of pet1t1on-form of afJ.1dt;v1tVagueness of petition-Evidence Act-Cassettes evidence whether adm1ss1bleOrd~r of costs in favour of the respondent. 281 A B ·The appellant a candidate of Muslim League defeated respondent No. 3 C Shauket Chagla, the Congress c.andidate in the Maharashtra State in Assembly Election. Respondent No. 1, a voter filed an Election Petition, inter alia, alleging that the appellant appealed to the voters to refrain from voting for respondent N~. 2. on the ground of religion and that the appellant promoted feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India On grounds of religion. The appe11ant made· the following appeai to the voters in his variuos election speeches : (1) ~(uslim personal Jaw was a matter of religious faith f~r Muslims and that it extended to the mode of disposing of bodies of the dead. The· voters were told that if they voted for Chagla they would have to cremate the bodies of their dead instead of burying them because Chagla had cremated the dead body of his sister. (2) The appe1lant entreated hi3 audience not to vote for those who stood .against" their religion. (3) Chagla was not true to his religion and that the appellant was a true Muslim. D E l4) If Muslim personal law may be considered a personal matter by Chagla it was considered to be "the law of God" by Muslims who F Would not tolerate any attempts to amend it as that would raise a religious question. ~5.) If the Congress Government brought any amendments iil Muslim religious law the battle v,rould be fought in every street. (6) Chagla advocated inter-com·munal or inter-caste marriages and that he wanted a Hindu to be a member of th~ Haj Committee. (7) There were references to riots -in which only Muslims were alleged to have been killed. (8) The appella:nt claimed that he would die far I dam and further said that "God has blessed us that every drop of our blood would give birth to thousands of Bukharis." (9) "At the moment we are in such a war in which our opponent is such G a person who is playing with our religious affairs. He considers us to H be a community whose conscience is dead." (10) "We have not signed any deed of slavery for the Government. \Vhen we find that the Goven1ment i! working against us, our lights are being crushed, our religious affairs are being interfered with, then we will rise openly against it. We would rise like a wan cemented with lead. Then who would bang with this wall, would get his hand broken. No harm would be done to us." 282 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1975] SUPP· s.c.R. A (11) Chagla's wife Nalini was a Hindu and his son was named Ashok. B c Chagla used to attend the mosque as well as the temple and he should be excluded from Muslim localities. (12) Chagla \Vas neither a good Hindu nor a true Muslitn sd that neithzr God nor Bhag\van \Vas pleased with him. The High Court allowed the petition and set aside the election of the appellant. The High Court awarded costs of Rs. 12,000 to the first respondent and costs of Rs. 3,000 to the second respondent. In the present statutory appeal the appellant contended : ( 1) The affidavit filed by the election petitioner was not in proper form since it does not give the sources of infoITIIation of· the corrupt practices. (2) The High Court erred in not framing issue on the vagueness of the petition. (3) The High Court erroneously allowed the amendment of the Election, petition. (4) The High Court ought not to have relied on the cassettes of tape records. D ( 5) The appellant merely asked the voters to suport one who opposed E F G H any change in· muslim personal law as against another who Wanted to change it. If change of personal law is a secular matter oj:ipositi_on to its change could not become an appeal on grounds of religion. (6) ## Text _Characters 0–39,766 of 55,621. This is a partial read: ask again with offset=39766 for what follows._ ' , ZIY AUDDIN BURHANUDDIN BUKHARI v. BRIJMOHAN RAMDASS MEHRA & ORS. April 25, 1975 [M. H. BEG, A. ALAQIRISWAMI AND N. L. UNTWALIA, JJ.] Representation of the People Act-Section 123(2), (3) & 3 (A)-Corrupt practice-Appeal 011 the gro1111d of relig~on-Pn11noti1.1g_ feelings of hatr.ed c:nd en1nity between different classes-Aniend1nent of pet1t1on-form of afJ.1dt;v1tVagueness of petition-Evidence Act-Cassettes evidence whether adm1ss1bleOrd~r of costs in favour of the respondent. 281 A B ·The appellant a candidate of Muslim League defeated respondent No. 3 C Shauket Chagla, the Congress c.andidate in the Maharashtra State in Assembly Election. Respondent No. 1, a voter filed an Election Petition, inter alia, alleging that the appellant appealed to the voters to refrain from voting for respondent N~. 2. on the ground of religion and that the appellant promoted feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India On grounds of religion. The appe11ant made· the following appeai to the voters in his variuos election speeches : (1) ~(uslim personal Jaw was a matter of religious faith f~r Muslims and that it extended to the mode of disposing of bodies of the dead. The· voters were told that if they voted for Chagla they would have to cremate the bodies of their dead instead of burying them because Chagla had cremated the dead body of his sister. (2) The appe1lant entreated hi3 audience not to vote for those who stood .against" their religion. (3) Chagla was not true to his religion and that the appellant was a true Muslim. D E l4) If Muslim personal law may be considered a personal matter by Chagla it was considered to be "the law of God" by Muslims who F Would not tolerate any attempts to amend it as that would raise a religious question. ~5.) If the Congress Government brought any amendments iil Muslim religious law the battle v,rould be fought in every street. (6) Chagla advocated inter-com·munal or inter-caste marriages and that he wanted a Hindu to be a member of th~ Haj Committee. (7) There were references to riots -in which only Muslims were alleged to have been killed. (8) The appella:nt claimed that he would die far I dam and further said that "God has blessed us that every drop of our blood would give birth to thousands of Bukharis." (9) "At the moment we are in such a war in which our opponent is such G a person who is playing with our religious affairs. He considers us to H be a community whose conscience is dead." (10) "We have not signed any deed of slavery for the Government. \Vhen we find that the Goven1ment i! working against us, our lights are being crushed, our religious affairs are being interfered with, then we will rise openly against it. We would rise like a wan cemented with lead. Then who would bang with this wall, would get his hand broken. No harm would be done to us." 282 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1975] SUPP· s.c.R. A (11) Chagla's wife Nalini was a Hindu and his son was named Ashok. B c Chagla used to attend the mosque as well as the temple and he should be excluded from Muslim localities. (12) Chagla \Vas neither a good Hindu nor a true Muslitn sd that neithzr God nor Bhag\van \Vas pleased with him. The High Court allowed the petition and set aside the election of the appellant. The High Court awarded costs of Rs. 12,000 to the first respondent and costs of Rs. 3,000 to the second respondent. In the present statutory appeal the appellant contended : ( 1) The affidavit filed by the election petitioner was not in proper form since it does not give the sources of infoITIIation of· the corrupt practices. (2) The High Court erred in not framing issue on the vagueness of the petition. (3) The High Court erroneously allowed the amendment of the Election, petition. (4) The High Court ought not to have relied on the cassettes of tape records. D ( 5) The appellant merely asked the voters to suport one who opposed E F G H any change in· muslim personal law as against another who Wanted to change it. If change of personal law is a secular matter oj:ipositi_on to its change could not become an appeal on grounds of religion. (6) The order of costs passed by the High Court \Vas very excessive. (7) The appellant did not get a fair trial. HELD : Our Constituticin-makers intended to set up a Secular Democratic Republic. Our political history made it particularly necessary that the basis of religion, race, caste, community, culture, creed and language \Vhich can generate powe1iul emotions depriving people of their powers of rational thought and action should not be permitted to be exploited lest the imperative conditions for preservation of democratic freedoms are disturbed. Section 123 (2), (3 J and (3A) were enacted to eliminate from the electoral Process appeals to those decisive factors \\,:hich firousc irrational p;:tssions that run counter to the basic tenets of our Constitution. Dile respect for the religious belief and practices, race, creed, cultur~ and language of other citizens is one of the basic postulates of our democratic system. The line has to be drawn by the court between what is permissible and \vhat is prohibited after taking into account the facts and circumstances of each case interpreted in the context in \Vhich the stare ments or acts' complained of were1made. The court has to determine the effect of sta.tements made by the candidate upon the n1inds and feelings of the ordinary average voters of this country. [28'8A-F] The High Court was right in holding that tape records of the speeches were documents and were admissible in evidence, provided the voice of the speaker was identified, accuracy of the actual recording ascertained-and the· relevancy of the subject matter established. [290A-B] The High Court rightly considered the tape records to be reliable for the f0llcwing three reasons: firstly, the tape records have been prepared by an independent authority, the police ; secondly, transcripts from the tape records \Vere duly prepared very soon after the tape records were made which made the subsequent tampering easy to detect ; ana thirdly, the police had made !he tape records as part of its routine duties and not for the purpose of laying any trap to procure-evidence. [290G-H, 291A} Tue High Court rightly treated the shorthand notes and. short~and transcripts made by those \vho heard the speeches as corroborative evidence and \Vhich could be used by the witness to refresh his memory. [291·F] ' z. B. BUKHARI V. BRIJMOHAN (Beg, /.) The High Court rightly held that the various speeches made by the appellant ¥iolated the provisions of section 123(2), (3) and (3A). We do not consider .such speeches have any place in a democratic set up in our Constitution. Our democracy can only survive if those who aspire to become people's representa- ;tives and leaders understand the ipirit of secular democracy. If- such propaganda was permitted it would injure the interests of the members of the religious minority groups m,ore than those of others. [293 BF, 294 E, G, 295 E, H, 296 BJ . The objection that the affidavit \Vas not in proper form is wholly untenable. The aJleged defect is one of lack of particulars which v;ras given up by the .oppellant in the High Court. (2$6 A & CJ 283 A B There js no substance in the objection that the High Court did not frame an i6Sue on the qutstion of vagueness of the petition. The real objection is that the particulars of the speeches made by the appellant were given in great -Oetail in the statements annexed to the petition with the necessary affidavit. The C law does not require the whole evidence to be set out in the petition in the form of particulars. (286 CDEJ The trial c0t1rt by allowing the amendment merely removed the vagueness from the petition by confining the allegation of corn1pt practice against the .appellant himself. [286 G-H] Various allegations have bee~ made of unfairness against the trial Judge. There is no substance in those allegations. The nat:ure of these allegations dis- .closes an unreasonable attitude of the appellant's counse~ which was also exhibited during the course of the trial. [287-F] ' The order of costs appears tc err on the side of severity. The order of costs in favour of respondent No. 2 was set aside since the petition \Vas filed ''by respondent No. 1. The costs awarded in favour of respondent No. 1 was redoced from Rs. 12,000 to Rs. 6,000. (298 E, FG] CIVIL A.PPELLATE JumsmcnoN : Civil Appeal No. 134 of 1973. From the Judgment and order dated the 27th/28th November, 1972 of the Bombay High Court in Election Petition No. 4 of 1972. K. K. Singhvi, R. K. Garg, V . .T. Francis and S. C. Agarwala, for the appellant. M. C. Bhandare, P. H. Parekh, and S. Bhandare, for respondent No. 1. D E F The Judgll)ent of the Court was delivered by G BEG, J.-This appeal under section 116A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') is directed against the Judgment and order of the High Court of Bombay setting aside-the election of the appellant to the Maharashtra State Assembly from Kumbharwada constituency held on 9-8-1972 on a voter's election petition· H The voter alleged that the appellant, in the course of his election, had committed corrupt practices defined in Section 123, sub. s. (2) and (3) and (3A) of the Act. The gist of the charges against the appellant Ziyauddin Burhanuddin Bukhari (hereinafter referred to as 'Bukhari'), a Muslim League candidate, was, that, he had made 284 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1975] SUPP· S.C.R. A speeches in the course of his election campaign calculated to induce a belief in the voters that they will be objects of divine displeasure or spiritual censure if they voted for Shaukat Currimbhoy Chagla (hereinafter referred to as 'Chagla'), a Congress Party candidate, who was impleaded as the 2nd respondent that, in the above mentioned speeches, the appellant had called upon the electors to vote for him and not for B Chagla on the ground that he alone stood for all that was Mnslim whereas Chagla represented all that was against Muslim religion and belief so that Chagla could not be a true Muslim at all, the object of such appeals being to further the chances of election of Bukhari and to prejudiciaUy effect the prospects of the election of Chagla; that, the -appellant, Bukhari, had attempted to promote feelings of enmity and hatred between Muslims· and Hindus on grounds of religion and come munity. Particulars of the speeches delivered at sixteen meetings and what was said there by Bukhari were furnished with the election petition. D E F G 'H The alleged corrupt practices arc defined in the following provisions. of Section 123 : "(2) Undue influence, that is to say, any direct or indirect interference or attempt to interfere on the part of the ca,ndidate or his agent, or of any other person with the consent of the ca:1didatc or his election ai::ent, with the free exercise of any electoral right : Provided that-- (a) without prejudice to the generality of the prov1s10ns of this clause any such person as is referred to therein who- (i) threatens any candidate or any elector, or any person in whom a candidate or an elector is interested, with injury of any kind including social ostracism and ex-communication or expulsion from any caste or community; or (ii) induces or attempts to induce a candidate or an elector to believe that he, or any person in whom he is interested, will became or will be rendered an object of divine displeasure or spiritual censure, shaU be deemed to interfere with the free exercise of the electoral right of such candidate or elector within the meaning of this clause; (b) a declaration of public policy, or a promise of public action, or the mere exercise of a legal right without intent to interfere with an electoral right, shall not be deemed to be interference within the meaning of this clause. (3) The appeal by a candidate or his agent or by any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent to vote or refrain from voting for any person on the ground of his religion, race, caste, community or language or the use of, or appeal to religious symbols or the use of, or appeal to,. national symbols, such as the national flag or the national emblem, for the furtherance of the prospects of the election of that -+ • z. B. BUKHARI v. BR!JMOHAN (Beg, J.) 285 candidate or for prejudicially affecting the election of A any candidate. (3A) The promotion of, or attempt to promote feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the· citizens of India on grounds of religion, race, caste, community, or language, by a candidate or his agent or any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent for the furtherance of the prospects of the election of that candidate or for prejudicially affecting the election of any candidate." B Before considering whether the allegations made in the petition are substantiated, and, if so, whether allJI corrupt practice, as defined above C was committed, beyond reasonable doubt, by the appellant. we will deal with certain technical objections placell before us at the outset by learned Counsel for the appellant. It is urged that 11llegations of corrupt practices, falling under Section 123(3) and 123(3A), are not supported by the affidavit required D by the proviso to Section 83(1) of the Act. Section 83 of the Act enacts : "83. Contents of petition-(!) An election petition- ( a) shall . contain a concise statement of the material facts on which the petitioner relies; E (b) shall set forth full particulars of any corrupt practice that the petitioner alleges, including as full a statement as possible of the names of the parties alleged to have committed such corrupt practice and the date and place of the commission of each such practice; and (c) shall be signed by the petitioner and verified in the manner laid down in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908) for the verification of pleadings : Provided that where the petitioner alleges any corrupt practice, the petition shall also be accompained by an affidavit in the prescribed form in support of the allegation of such corrupt practice and the particulars thereof. ' (2) Any schedule or annexure to the petition shall also be signed by the petitioner and verified in the same mamier as the petition". It was submitted that Section 80 of the Act amounts to a prohibition against calling in question any election, "except by an election petition prese~ted in a~cordan7e with the provisions of this part" (i. e. Chapter JI which contams Sec!ion 83). Apart from the fact that the High Court dealing with this question had, in our opinion, rightly recorded the finding that the issue No. 2. framed on this objection was specifically grven up in its entirt'ty by the learned Counsel for the a'ppeallant, so that he could not wriggle out of it by a vagne reservation of s01μe right to F G H 286 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1975] SUPP· s.c.R. A urge that the affidavit filed was not in proper form, we were not shown any defect of form at all in the affidavit filed. All that was urged is that the relevant affidavit does not give the sources of information so far as corrupt practices. under section 123(3) and 123(3A) are concerned. As was pointed out by this Court in Hardwari Lal v. Kanwal Singh('), this is not a defect of the required form but may, B in suitable cases, form the subject matter of an objection based on Section 86 and Section 123 (7) of the Act relating to supply of materi;il particulars. It was indicated by this Court in Prabhu Narayan v. A. K. Srivastava( 2 ), that a petition can only be dismissed for a substantial defect. In the case before us, as there is no defect at all in the form of C the affidavit, and the alleged defecL_ of want of particulars, set up in paragraph 2 of the written statement on which issue No. 2 was framed, must be deemed to have been given up on behalf of the appellant, we cannot now entertain in this Court an objection, based on alleged want of particulars, particularly as nothing material seems to have been wanting. We also think there is no substance in the appellant's obiection that the Trial Court had not framed an issue D on an alleged vagueness of the petition which is another way of saying that it was wanting in particulars. The particulars of the speeches made by the appellant were given .in great detail in Lhe ·statements annexed to the petition with the necessary affidavit. We can presume that, if such an objection on the ground of insufficient particulars is actually given up by a party so thl!ct an issue actually framed E on it is not tried, the party could have suffered no disadvantage from alleged want of further details which are reaJly matters of evidence. The law does not require the whole evidence to be set out with the petition in !he form of particulars. Still another objection was that the Trial Court had eroneously allowed an amendment of the election petition by an order dated F 29-9-1972. Reliance was placed upon this Court's decision in Manubhai Nandlal Anersey v. Popat/al Maini/al Joshi & Ors.(") and Samant N. Balakrishna etc. v. Geo1ge Fernandez & Ors. etc. ( 4 ), to contend that the amendment 11sked for should not have been allowed. We have examined the application for amendments of the petition sought by the petitioner and allowed by the Court. We think that the amendments really removed vagueness from the petition by G confining th~ allegations of corrupt practice to what of corrupt practice to what the appellant Bukhari himself had said in his speeches. AHributions of those very statements to his agents, in the alternative, whic:h introduced some ambiguity, were deleted. Another amendment sought was the insertion of names of persons said to have made certain other speeches. The High Court had allowed the amendments on the ground that they did not amount to any allegation H of a fresh corrupt practice. The question whether the speeches of certain persons other than the appellant were rightly permitted to become the subject matter of c:onsideration by the amenflment ·has lost all (') [1972] (2) SCR 742. (') C.A. No. 1174of1973-1eliverd "' 14-2-75. (') [1969] (3) SCR 217. (') [1969] (3) SCR 603. • \.· .. '· y • z. B. BUKHARI V. BRIJMOHAN (Beg, J.) importance as the appellant has been held guilty of corrupt practices solely for speeches made by himself and we propose to deal with those only. We, therefore, find no force in the objections to the order allowing amendment of the election petition, which only clarified the petitioner's case. Learned Counsel for the appellant invited out attention especially to ground 'H' of the grounds of appeal. This is the most prolix of all the grounds of appeal the number of which not only exhausts the whole alphabet 'A' to 'Z' but ground numbered 'Z' is divided into subgrounds 'Zl' to 'Z.15', and each of these sub-grounds is further split up into a number of minor grounds. Ground 'H' itself is split up into 22 parts which cover 5 printed pages of our paper book. Ground 'H' thus consists of a long statement of the ~pellant's grievances about mutifarious mfrlters cov,ering the whole course of trial of the case, such as a permission given by the Court to recall a police SubInspector for further examination, permission accorded by the Court to the respondent's Counsel for getting transcripts of the appellant's tape recorded speeches made under the supervision of a Court officer, permission granted to the Solicitors of Chagla to obtain copies of documents filed, the observations recorded by the learned Judge about the demeanour of witnesses and other similar matters. No illegality whatsoever is even alleged in most of these purported grounds of objection. If these grounds indicate a carpingly unreasonable attitude of the appellant's Counsel during the course of the trial in the High Court or attempts to make mountains out of molehills, they may afford some light on why the rather unusual order of heavy costs was passed by the learned Judge with which we shall deal separately at the end of this Judgment we are, however, linable to find, from material on record, that the conduct of the trial by the learned trial Judge was unfair in any respect. Moreover, we think that the only really material question before the Court for decision, on which we have ourselves re-examined the whole evidence on record, were : Did the appellant's speeches contain what was said to be tape-recorded and also sought to be proved by oral evidence supported by the notes of those who are alleged to have heard these speeches themselves ? If this was so, was their. effect upon the ordinary average voters of this country such as to come within the mischief provided for by any of the three heads of provisions of Sec. 123 of the Act set out above ? These are questions capable of determination objectively irrespective ·Of the snbjective inclinations or opinions of the Judge deciding such issues although we cannot, and should not even try to, escape the ·consequences, upon any case before us, of our conclusions about the purposes and meanings of the relevant provisions of Section 123 of the Act, set out above, reached by applying relevant rules of interpretation of such provisions. _ w~ propose to indicate, at this stage, what mischief the provisions were designed to supr~ss because that seems to i:s to be the most illuminating and certam way of ·correctly construmg these statutory 287 A B c D E F G H r 288 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1975] SUPP· s.c.R. A prov!510ns. We cannot do so without adverting to the historical, political, and Constitutional background of our democratic set up, such provisions are necessary in our opinion, to sustain the spirit or climate in which the electoral machinery of this set up could work. Our Constitution-makers certainly intended to set up a Secular Democratic Republic the binding spirit of which is summed up by the B objectives set forth in the preamble to the Constitution. No democratic political and social order, in which the conditions of freedom and their progressive expansion for all make some regulation of all activities imperative, could endure without an agreement on the basic essentials which could unite and hold citizens together despite all the df!crenccs of religion, race, caste, community, culture, creed and c language. Our political history made it particularly necessary that these differences, which can generate powerful emotions, depriving people of their powers of rational thought and action, should not be permitted to be exploited lest the imperative conditions for the preservation of democratic freedoms are disturbed. It seems to us that Section 123, sub s. (2), (3) and (3A) were enD acted so as to eliminate, from the clectroral process, appeals to those divisive factors which arouse irrational passions that run counter to the basic tenets of our Constitution, and, indeed, of any civilised political and social order. Due respect for the religious beliefs and practices, race, creed, culture and language of other citizens is one of the b"°sic postulates of our democratic system. Under E the guise of protecting your own religion, culture or creed you cannot embark on personal attacks on those of others or whip up low hard instincts and animosities or irrational fears between groups to secure electoral victories. The line. has to be drawn by the Courts, between what is permissible and what is prohibited, after taking into account the facts and circumstances of each case interpreted in the context in F which the statements or acts complained of were made. G H Section 123 (2) gives the "undue influence" which could be exercised by a candidate or his agent during an election a much wider connotation than this expression has under the Indian Contract Act. "Undue influence", a» an election offence under the English law is explained as follows in Halsbury's Laws of England, Third Edition, Vol. 14, p. 223-224 (para 387):L- "A person is guilty of undue influence, if he, directly or indirectly. by himself or by any other person on his behalf, makes use of or threatens to make use of any force, violence or restraint, or inflicts, or threatens to inflict, by himself or by any other person, any temporal or spiritual injury, damage, harm or loss upon or against any person in order to induce or compel that that person to vote or refrain from voting or on account of that person having voted or refrained from voting. A person is also guilty of undue influence if, by abduction, duress or any fraudulent device or contrivance, he impedes or prevents the free exercise of the franchise of an elector or proxy for an elector, or thereby compels, induces • y '1 • Z. B. BUKHARI V. BRIJMOHAN (Beg, J.) 289 or prevails upon an elector or proxy for an elector either to vote or to refrain from voting". - · A It will be seen that the English law on the subject has the same object as the relevant provisions of Section 123 of our Act. :But, the provisions Section 123 (2), (3) and (3A) seems widerin scope and also contain specific mention of what may be construed as "undue influence" B viewed in the background of our political history and the special conditions which have prevailed in this country. We have to determine the effect of stateD1ents proved to have been made by a candidate, or, on his behalf and with his consent, duri11g his election, upon the minds and feelings of the ordinary average voters of this country in every case of alleged corrupt practice of undue influence by making statements. We will therefore, proceed to consider the particular facts of the case before us. We have already mentioned above that the offending statements were alleged to have been made by the appellant at sixteen election meetings addressed at various places between 12-2-1972 and 6-3-1973. Out of these, the petitioner's counsel had given up, in the Trial Court, reliance on speeches a,t four meetings some of which were held at places outside the appellant's constituency. The High Court held that the contents of speeches alleged to have been made on 1-3-1972 at Erskine Road and on 3-3-1972 at Ismail Curtay Road and on 4-3-1972 at Nizam Street by the appellant were not duly proved. The High Court did not find that the statements made by the appellant in the course of the speeches on 12-2-1972 at Kachi Memon J amat Khana and on 23-2-1972 and 28-2-1972 at Chima Butcher Street had transgressed the limits of propriety set by Section 123(2) and (3) and (3A) of the Act. But, it found that the appellant had violated the provisions of either Section 123(2) or 123(3) or 1'23(3A) of the Act by statements made in the course of the remaining six speeches proved to have been made by the appellant. The evidence relating to the appellant's speeches, discussed fully by the High Court, consisted of : . 1. Cassettes or tape records of the appellant's speeches. c D E F 2. Transcripts of tape recorded speeches prepared shortly after tape-recording them. G. 3. Full shorthand records of speeches of the appellant by those who heard them at meetings. 4. Notes and records containing summaries of t11c appellant's speeches made by persons attending meetings. , 5. Statements of witnesses present at the meetings who had actually H heard what was said by the appellant. There could be and was no objection raised to the admissibility of the last mentioned type of evidence. But questions re1a.ting t() ·the admissibility 'of the first four types of evidence, mentioned above, were taken and may be conveniently dealt with here. 290 SUPRJl.ME COURT REPORTS [1975] SUPP· s.c.R. A c We think that the High Court was quite right in holding that the tape records of speeches were "documents", as defined by Section 3 of the Evidence Act, which stood on no different footing than photographs, and that they were admissible in evidence on satisfying the following conditions : (a) The voice of the person alleged to be speaking must be duly identified by thi~ maker of the record or by others who knew it. (b) Accuracy of what was actually recorded had to be proved by the maker of the record and satisfactory evidence, direct or circum · stantial, had to be there so as to rule out possibilities of tampering with the record. (c) The subject matter recorded had to be shown to be relevant according to rules of relevancy found in the Evidence Act. These requirements were deduced by the High Court from R. V. Maqsud Ali ( 1 ) The High Court had also relied on Yusufalli Esmail Nagree v. D State of Maharashtra( 2 ), to hold that a contemporaneous tape record of a relevant conversation or speech would be part res gestae. In this case, Court, while laying down requirements of admissibility of tape records as evidenct, also pointed out that the case with which the recording on a ·tape could be erased by subseque!"t recording, so that insertion could be superimposed, made it E necessary to receive such evidence with caution, and it said that the Court should be satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that the record had not been tampered with The High Court also referred to N. Sri Rama Reddy and Ors. v. V. V. Giri,(') for ,the proposition that, like any document, the tape record itself was "primary and direct evidence admissible of what 'F has been said and picked np by the receiver". In other words, its use was not confined to purposes of corroboration and contradiction only, but, when duly proved by satisfactory evidence of what was fcnmd recorded and of absence of tampering, it could, subject to the provisions of the· Evidence Act, be used as substantiative evidence. Thus, when it was di1puted or in . issue whether a person's speech, on a particular occasion, contained a particular statement there could hr G no more direct or better evidence of it thao ;;s tape record, assuming its authenticity to be duly established. In our opinion the High Court had rigl.,tly relied upon the tape recorded reproductions of the appellant's speee!ies. It had ~iven three grounds for considering the tape records to be reliable and ai;thentic: firstly, the tape records had been prepared and preserved safely by H an independent authority, the police, and not by a party to the case: second, the transcripts from the tape records, shown to have been duly prepared under independent supervision and control, very soon afterwards, made subsequent tempering with the cassettes easy to (') [19651 (2) AILE.R.464. ('l 1968 (Vol.70) Bombay Law Reporter 76@';78. (' !19711 (I) SCR 399. . i • z. B. BUKHARI V. BRIJMOHAN (Beg, J.) detect; and, thirdly, the police had made the tape records as parts of its routine duties in relation to election speeches and not for the purpose of laying any trap to procure evidence. We may add a fourth reason. This is that, after, going through the deposition of Bukhari in Cour·t, we find that, although he was identified by police officers as the person who was speaking when the relevant tape records were made, he did not, at any stage, dispute that the tape r.ecorded voice was his. He only denied having made some of the statements found recorded after the tape records had been played in Court in his presence. In fact, he admitted that he knew. that "the cassettes wern recorded by police officers who gave evidence" in Court. If the indirect implication of bis dubious statement, in denying some of the statements found in the speeches without denying that the voice making these statements was bis, could be that some portions had been interpolated, the police officers should have been cross-examined about it. Nevertheless, the appell.a.nt admitted, under crosscexamination, that he had given no instructions to his Counsel to cross-examine these officers on this matter. No suggestion was put to the police officers concerned indicating that there had been any interpolation in the records the making of which was proved beyond all reasonable doubt by evidence which had not been shaken. As regards the shorthand transcripts of the tape records, the evidence of their makers is there, it is certainly corroborative inasmuch as it only goes to confirm what the tape records contained. The tape records were the primary evidence of what was recorded. The transcripts could be used to show what the transcriber had found recorded there at the time Of the transcription. This operated as a check against tampering. They had been rightly used by the High Court only as corroborative evidence. 291 A B c D. As regards the shorthand notes and full short-hand transcripts f: made by those who heard the speeches, the High Court had treated these also as corroborative evidence which could be used by a witness to refresh his memory as laid down in Section 159 of the Evidence Act. It held that their contents could be brought on record by direct oral evidence in -the manner prescribed by Section 160 of the Evidence Act, a course the propriety of which has the support of decisions in G. this Court in Laxminarayan and Anr v. The Returning Officer and Ors.('), and in Kanti Prasad Jayshankar Yagnik v. Purshottamdas Ranchhoddas Patel and Ors.,( 2). We find no errors in the views adopted ~y the High Court on these questions. It was suggested that the tape recording, the making of transcripts, the making of shorthand notes by the· police had taken place at the instance of a Journalist, Yunus Rehrrian Ansari, who appeat'(ld H: as a witness for the petitioner in the case. He had frankly stated in his evidence in Court : "During the elections I second respondent. (1)[19141 3 s.c.c. 425 (2) [1969] 3 SCR 400. was looking after the interest of the I did feel disappointed. when the. 292 A SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1975] SUPP· S.C.R. second respondent lost the election. Every worker of the candidate feels disappointed if the candidate loses". After having been taken through the evidence, in the light of the submissions made by the learned Counsel for the appellan!, we are unable to hold that there must have been a conspiracy between the B Police Officers and Yunus Rehman Ansari to procure evidence for declaring the election of Bukhari void. Ansari, although not a disinterested witness, had stood the test of cross-examinatiQ!l well and could not be disbelieved merely because he was a worker of Chagla. His evidence is corroborated by the duly proved contents of tape recorded speeches, and, indeed, by some of the admissions of Bukhari C himself showing, inter-alia, that he considered any one who advocated reform of Muslim personal law to be a person unfit to get the support of "any Muslim". He said : D E "It is true tha,t Muslim personal law is apart of our religion (Wit. gives this answer after first attempting to evade giving a direct answer). It would follow that whoever attempted to change the Muslim personal law would be attempting to affect the Muslim religion. It is true that whcever attempted to do so would not be entitled to the support of a true Muslim or of any Muslim. I conveyed this repeatedly in my speeches to my electorate". We will now take up the contents of each of the six offending speeches, which, for the reasons indicated above, were rightly held to have been proved beyond reasonable doubt to have been made by the appellant. The first of the speeches found to be objectionable was delivered F by the appellant on 27-2-1972, at Masjid Street, within his own constituency. It is true that the contents of this speech are proved only by the evidence of Ansari corroborated by the notes prepared by Ansari himself. But, as these correspond with contents of other speeches examined by us, there seems no reason to disbefreve Ansari when he says that the appellant told the audience that Muslim personal law was a matter of religious faith for Muslims and that it extended to the G mode of disposing off bodies of the dead. The appellant went on to tell the listeners that, if they voted for Cbagla, they would have to cremate the bodies of their dead instead of burying them because Chagla had cremated the dead body of bis sister. The appellant also attacked Chagla's religion by stating that everyone bad to observe his religion whole-heartedly and not like one who was (to put it in the equivalent English idiom) "neither fish nor fowl". The appellant enH treated bis audience not to vote for those who stood against their religion. The clear implication of his words was that Cbagla was not true to his religion whereas the appellant was, and, therefore, the voters should prefer Bukhari. His absolutely unambiguous object was to persuade the audience not to vote for Chagla but w vote tor Bukhan on the ground that Bukhari was a true Muslim whereas Chagla was not. ' z. B. BUKHARI V. BRIJMOHAN (Beg, J.) 293 The High ,Court had referred to Kultar Singh v. Mukhtiar A Singh('), and said that a candidate appealing to voters in -the name