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Karikho Kri vs. Nuney Tayang & Anr.

Not available · 2024 INSC 289Decided 9 Apr 2024
Not available
Justice Aniruddha Bose · Justice Sanjay Kumar

Background

Karikho Kri won the 2019 Arunachal Pradesh assembly election from the Tezu constituency. The runner-up, Nuney Tayang, filed an election petition alleging Kri's nomination was improperly accepted because he failed to disclose in his election affidavit certain vehicles registered in his wife's and son's names (though already sold/gifted before the nomination) and a "No Dues Certificate" for a government house he had vacated years earlier. The High Court voided Kri's election on these grounds, without declaring Tayang the winner.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that non-disclosure of vehicles that had already been genuinely sold or gifted away, even though registration formally still stood in the family members' names, did not amount to "undue influence" or a corrupt practice, since ownership under the Motor Vehicles Act (relevant for accident-liability cases) does not control who is the "real" owner for election-disclosure purposes. Similarly, the failure to disclose an old, fully-cleared government-accommodation due was not a defect of a "substantial character" under Section 36(4) of the Act. The Court held that not every non-disclosure invalidates a nomination, only substantial defects that are material to the voter's right to information do, and restored Karikho Kri's election as valid.

Lesson Learnt

Small or technical omissions in an election candidate's disclosure affidavit will not void an election unless they are of real substance and actually mislead voters. The law protects a reasonable, not an absolute, standard of disclosure.

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

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