Har Govind vs Paloo Ram and Others

D.K. Mahajan, J.—This order will dispose of Civil Writ petitions Nos. 807, 866 and 867 of 1963. In these petitions the petitioners are different persons but the attack is on the same notification dated the 29th of April, 1963, which in the case of Civil Writ No. 807 was published on the 3rd of May and in the case of Civil Writ Nos. 866 and 867 was published on the 10th of May, 1963. By reason of these notifications the elections of these three petitioners to the Municipal Committee, Rohtak, were declared void. The basis on which the Election Tribunal came to the conclusion that the petitioner''s elections should be set aside is the same, namely, the poster exhibit P.W. 5/1 in Civil Writ No. 807 of 1963 entitled as "Atma-ki-Awaz."

All the petitioners, namely, Hargobind, Paras Ram and Sudesh Kumar contested the elections to the Municipal Committee, Rohtak, in the month of July, 1961. All of them were declared successful candidates with regard to their respective wards. Their elections were challenged by election petitions filed by Paloo Ram, Narsingh Das and Hira Nand in Civil Writ Nos. 807, 866 and 867 of 1963 respectively. Numbers of grounds were raised in these petitions but all of them were dropped excepting ground in paragraph 6(g). That ground reads thus-

that the Rohtak Branch of Jan Sangh the party of the respondent got published a poster under the title "Atma-ki-Awaz" reiterating and containing very objectionable and false statement regarding Congress and the Congress Government. This poster was distributed in thousands to create hatred against the Congress and Congress candidates including the petitioner.

The relevant portion of this poster on which stress was laid is as follows :

That the Congress Government in order to injure the religious sentiments of Hindus is getting butchered thousands of cows daily and beef is being cooked in Government hotels.

The Election Tribunal came to the conclusion that this poster by reason of the aforesaid quotation amounts to corrupt practice within the meaning of rule 51(xi), of the Municipal Election Rules. The Tribunal while dealing with this corrupt practice observed as follows:

Whether it is rational or not, the Hindus generally worship cow and it is irreligious for them to take beef or to slaughter cow. In some of the old scriptures, it is laid down that 33 crores of dewtas reside in a cow. In the pre-partition days there have been clashes between Hindus and Muslims resulting even in murders when the Muslims resorted to killing the cow and Hindus tried to rescue her. When an animal is worthy of worship and is regarded as such by the Hindus generally, it is a symbol of religion. To tell the voters that because the Congress was indulging in cow slaughter and thereby injuring the religious susceptibilities of Hindu, was an appeal to religion as mentioned in clause (xi) of rule 51 of the Municipal Election Rules. This type of religious appeal is likely to create undue influence on the voters as mentioned in rule 51(a)(ii) of the Municipal Election Rules, India is a country of castes, races, communities and religions and the Government is striving hard to make India one and a strong nation. It is because of this that very recently there has been stress on national and emotional integration. It would be clear to any reader of History that disintegration of India in the past has also been due to the fact that various castes and communities have not been cosmopolitan or even national in their outlook and behavior. Time has now come to eradicate this evil of sectarianism completely. It is for these reasons that appeal to religious sentiments has been made a corrupt practice.

In view of the aforesaid observations the election of all the three petitioners was set aside by the Election Tribunal and the Government issued the relevant notifications declaring their elections voids, which have already been referred to above.

The impugned notifications by the Government are the subject-matter of dispute in the present petitions. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners is that the offending portion of the poster does not amount to appeal to religion and for this he has relied on the decision of the Election Tribunal in Lachhiram v. Jamuna Parsad Mukhariya 9 E.L.R. 149 which decision was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Jamuna Prashad Mukhariya v. Lachhi Ram 10. E.L.R. 120. This decision has further been relied upon by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh in Pandit K.C. Sharma v. Krishi Pandit Kishabkumar 20 E.L.R. 401, wherein it has been held that an appeal on the basis of the protection of cow does not in law constitute an appeal on the basis of religion.

The approach to posters published at the time of elections or election speeches, which are made the subject-matter of corrupt practices, in an elections petition, has been settled by their Lordships of the Supreme Court in Jagdev Singh Sidhanti v. Partap Singh Daulta 1964 Curr. L.J. 231 and Kultar Singh Vs. Mukhtiar Singh, It would be apparent from the close reading of these two authorities that a tirade, however, obnoxious against a political party would be of no consequence and even an indirect appeal to religion would not amount to a corrupt practice. In view of the aforesaid decisions it must be held that the offending portion of the impugned posts does not amount to a corrupt practice within the meaning of rule 51(xi).

For the reasons recorded above it must be held that the impugned notifications, are not legal and that the election of the petitioners could not be declared void.

It will be proper at this stage to notice two contentions advanced by the learned counsel for the respondents, namely, Paloo Ram, Narsingh Dass and Hira Nand. The first contention is that there can be no interference with the order of the Election Commission under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. For this proposition reliance is placed on Syed Yakoob Vs. K.S. Radhakrishnan and Others, . It may be mentioned that their Lordships in this very case laid down that if there is an error apparent on the face of the record, the High Court will be well within its jurisdiction to set that error right. It cannot be disputed that what will amount to a corrupt practice within the meaning of rule 51(xi) is a pure question of law and therefore it is open to the High Court to examine the decision of a tribunal on this question, namely, whether on the facts found by the tribunal a corrupt practice within the meaning of rule 51(xi) is made out or not. I have already held that the impugned part of the poster does not in law amount to a corrupt practice and this matter is well settled by authorities That being so the contention of the learned counsel that this Court cannot interfere under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is pointless.

The second contention of the learned counsel for the respondents is that the poster directly raises an appeal to religion because it states that the religious feelings of the Hindus will be injured. This matter I have already dealt with- The poster does not make an appeal to religion. The poster has to be read as a whole as observed by their Lordships of the Supreme Court. In the context in which the offending words are used in the poster it is clear that it is nothing but a tirade against the Congress Government. In the poster there is no direct appeal to religion as such. Therefore the second contention also is without force.

For the reasons given above these petitions are allowed. This order of the Election Commission as well as the impugned notifications are quashed. There will be no order as to costs in these petitions.