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Ajay Arjun Singh v. Sharadendu Tiwari & Others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 2697 of 2016)Decided 15 Mar 2016
Civil Appeal No. 2697 of 2016
Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre

Background

After winning the 2013 Madhya Pradesh assembly election from Churhat constituency, Ajay Arjun Singh ("the Returned Candidate") faced an election petition from a rival candidate, Sharadendu Tiwari, alleging corrupt practices (appeals on religious grounds, bribery, and excess election expenditure). The Returned Candidate sought dismissal of the election petition at the threshold under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, arguing the mandatory affidavit accompanying the petition did not comply with the prescribed Form 25 under the Representation of the People Act; the High Court rejected this and also rejected his review application, leading to cross-appeals to the Supreme Court by both sides, including a separate appeal over the High Court's later clarificatory findings on exactly how many affidavits were filed and when.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court had earlier remitted a narrow factual question to the High Court, whether one or two affidavits were filed with the election petition, on what date, and whether either complied with Section 83(1)(c) of the Act, and the High Court's clarification order found that two affidavits had indeed been filed on the same date as the petition, one of which satisfied the statutory requirement. The Returned Candidate's challenge to that clarification order (the appeal arising out of SLP No. 31051 of 2015) was found to be without merit and dismissed, and as a direct consequence, the Returned Candidate's original appeals against the rejection of his Order VII Rule 11 petition and review application (the appeals arising out of SLP Nos. 33933 of 2014 and 11096 of 2015: the latter being Civil Appeal No. 2697 of 2016) were also dismissed. Correspondingly, the election petitioner's appeal challenging certain adverse High Court findings (arising out of SLP No. 15361 of 2015) was allowed, since those findings became academic once the Returned Candidate's challenge failed.

Lesson Learnt

A technical objection to the form of an affidavit accompanying an election petition will not succeed in getting the petition thrown out at the threshold if the record shows the required affidavit was, in substance, actually filed on time: courts will look at the underlying factual record rather than accept a procedural objection at face value.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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