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TMI Blog1975 (2) TMI 113X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dent void. After service of the notice of the election petition alongwith the enclosures thereto, 'Respondent No. 1 made an application on 28-11-1972 to the High Court raising an objection that out of the copies of the election petition, list of Annexures and Affidavits on him, only the annexures were signed by Respondent No. 3 and the rest were not. Signed by him. Respondent No. 1 submitted to the Court that there was noncompliance with the requirement of sub-section 3 of Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951-(hereinafter called ,the Act) and hence the election petition was liable to be dismissed ,under section 86(1). A learned single Judge of the High Court to whom the election petition had been transferred for disp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion and prayed for a week's time to do the same. In the meantime passing of the order on the petition of Res- pondent No.1 was asked to be deferred. The High Court asked the appellant's counsel who was none else than the counsel of Respondent No. 3 and who had withdrawn from representing him, to show under. what provision of the Act or any other law an elector of the Constituency as the appellant was, had' a right to intervene in the case. Since the appellants Advocate was unable to show it the prayer of the appellant was rejected by an order passed on 23-1-1973. Later on the same date by a reasoned and long order the objection of Respondent No. 1 was allowed on the. basis of the copies of the various papers as they were befo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pondent No. 3 under section 86. In any view of the matter, counsel further submitted, the present appeal was competent from the order of the High Court rejecting the appellants prayer made in his petition dated 23-1-1973. Although in view of the explanation appended to subsection (1) of Section 86 of the Act an order of the High Court dismissing the election petition under the said sub-section is to be deemed to be an order made under clause (a) of Section 98 and hence appealable under section 116A, learned counsel for the appellant found it difficult to satisfy us that the scope of this appeal was to find out whether the appellant was a person who had a right to file such an appear or in any event he had such right. The appellant was no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... arting from section 86 is headed Trial of Election Petitions . Then comes Chapter IV incorporating sections 109 to 116 providing for the procedure to be followed in case of withdrawal and abatement of election petitions. Under sub- section (1) of section- 109 an election petition may be withdrawn only by leave of the High Court. When such an application is made notice is to be given not only to the parties to the election petition but it is to be published in the official gazette also. Sub-section (2) of section 110 enjoins upon the High Court not to allow the withdrawal application if it has been induced by any bargain or consideration which ought not to be allowed. If the withdrawal application is granted then section 110 (3) (c) permits ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent. It may be a case of Casus omissus. It is a well-known rule of construction of statutes that A statute, even more than a contract, must be construed,, ut res magis valeat quam pereat, so that the intentions of the legislature may not be treated as vain or left to operate in the air. A second consequent of this rule is that a,statute may not be extended to meet a case for which provision has clearly and undoubtedly not been made -See pages 69 and 70 of Craies on Statute Law-6th edition. It seems plain that the High Court is enjoined to dismiss ail election petition which does not comply with the provisions of section 81 or section 82 or section 117 of the Act. In the true cases of non-compliance with the said provisions of law a q ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... idate or an elector, the, carriage of the case does not entirely rest with the petitioner.- The reason for the elaborate provisions noticed by us earlier is to ensure, to the extent possible that the persons who offend the election law are not allowed to avoid the consequences of their misdeeds But the said observations cannot and were not meant to travel beyond the realm of the contingencies of withdrawal and abatement of an election petition. In Duryodhan v. Sitaram and others(1) A.I.R. 1970, Allahabad, 1.one of the learned Judges constituting the Full Bench in his separate judgment pointed out at page 14 of a similar contingency arising in the case of dismissal of an election petition for default of appearance of the election peti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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