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Arikala Narasa Reddy v. Venkata Ram Reddy Reddygari and Another

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 5710-5711 of 2012)Decided 4 Feb 2014
Civil Appeal Nos. 5710-5711 of 2012
Justice B.S. Chauhan · Justice J. Chelameswar · Justice M.Y. Eqbal

Background

A Legislative Council candidate was declared elected by one vote after recounting. His opponent challenged the rejection of three ballots and acceptance of another, and the High Court eventually declared the opponent elected. The successful candidate appealed, arguing that the High Court had examined ballots beyond the pleaded dispute.

Decision Breakdown

The Court restricted scrutiny to the specifically challenged ballots and the properly pleaded counterclaims. An election petition could not become a general search for errors through an unrestricted recount. It accepted two disputed votes but rejected ballots containing an ambiguous choice or an identifying signature; minor variations in writing the numeral one were not automatically fatal. The corrected totals left both candidates with 336 votes. The Court drew lots in open court under the statutory tie-breaking provision, and the appellant succeeded.

Lesson Learnt

An election challenge needs specific pleaded counting errors rather than an open-ended recount request. Voters must also avoid ambiguous choices or identifying signatures that can invalidate a ballot.

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

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