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TMI Blog1958 (8) TMI 62X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Ramchandra Chowdhury. The appellant polled 18,530 votes and Ramchandra Chowdhury 17,136 votes. The appellant was accordingly declared elected on March 18, 1957. On April 29, 1957 the first respondent who is a voter in the Constituency filed the petition, out of which the present appeal arises, alleging therein that the appellant had committed a number of corrupt practices in the conduct of the election, and praying that his election might accordingly be declared void. The appellant denied the allegations in the petition. 2. Though before the Election Tribunal and in the High Court the controversy ranged over several charges, before us it is limited to only one of them, and that was thus stated in para 3(d) of the petition: That t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the order of the Tribunal dated September 3, 1957, striking out one of the instances was not proper, because if it was vague and indefinite, the petitioner should have been called upon to give further particulars and that the order striking it out, without giving an opportunity to the petitioner to do so was not justified. Then they proceeded to discuss the other ten instances on which evidence had been recorded, held that in seven out of them it had been established that mechanically propelled vehicles had been used for transporting voters to the polling booths. The learned Judges further held that as regards the polling which took place at Bolanwali, jeeps had been procured by the appellant himself. With reference to other instance ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed candidate as required under Section 100(1)(b) of the Act. And they expressed their conclusion in these terms : From the numerous instances in which voters were carried in mechanically propelled vehicles by the agents of the appellant some of whom were quite close to him, we are of the opinion that the appellant could not have been unaware of this transport of his voters by mechanically propelled vehicles and did nothing to stop it. We accordingly infer that they were so carried with his implied consent. 4. The learned Judges next proceeded to discuss a question of law, which was raised by the appellant. That question may thus be stated : Under Section 100, as it was originally enacted, it was sufficient to invalidate an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appeal to this Court, and the same was granted by the learned Judges, because they considered that the question whether there had been a change in the law by reason of the amendment made by Act XXVII of 1956 was one of general importance. That is how the appeal came before us. 5. Now, it appears to us that on the findings given by the learned Judges, the question as to whether the substitution of the word consent in place of connivance has brought about any change in the law does not really arise for determination. The learned Judges firstly find that the appellant had knowledge of the commission of corrupt practices by his agents and workers. If that was all that was found, it might have been open to argument whether that would b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was his consent to the commission of corrupt practices by his agents and his workers. 6. It was next argued by Mr. Sharma that the learned Judges were in error in inferring consent on the part of the appellant from the mere fact that he had knowledge of the acts. He argued that consent to an act implied that it was given before it was done, but that knowledge of an act can only mean that it was after the act was done and that therefore knowledge cannot in itself be equated with consent. There would have been force in this argument if all that was established was a stray act or even a number of them committed on one day. But here, the acts were numerous and extended over a number of days. On March 1, 1957 at Bholanwali it had been found ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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