Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961

Subramanian Swamy, as president of the de‑recognised Janata Party, challenged Clause 10A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, which allows a six‑year grace period for a party that loses its recognised status to retain its exclusive symbol. He argued that the provision was arbitrary, violated…

The appellant, a returned MLA, challenged an election petition alleging corrupt practices and excess expenditure under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. He filed an application under Order VI Rule 16 of the CPC seeking to strike out several paragraphs of the petition as frivolous, scandalous or vexatious. The…

The appellant, Tankadhar Tripathy, was elected from the Jharsuguda Assembly Constituency, after which the respondent, Dipali Das, filed an election petition alleging corrupt practices and EVM irregularities. The appellant challenged the petition's maintainability, arguing that the petition lacked a Form 25 affidavit as…

The appellant, Anil R. Deshmukh, filed an election petition challenging the election of Onkar N. Wagh to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, alleging corrupt practices. The petition required an affidavit under the proviso to Section 83(1)(c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The initial copy of the affid…

The Supreme Court examined an appeal against the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s order upholding the rejection of a candidate’s nomination in a bye‑election. The Election Commission had instructed Returning Officers to require candidates to fill a proforma disclosing information relevant to disqualification under Section 8…

The first respondent filed a nomination for the Lok Sabha election from Nagarkurnool (SC) constituency, but the Returning Officer rejected his Form B for leaving columns 2‑7 blank and consequently treated him as an independent candidate, refusing to allot the party symbol of Telangana Rashtra Samithi. The respondent an…

The appellant contested the 1992 Moga Assembly election, losing by seven votes, and filed an election petition alleging that 22 bogus votes were cast for the winning respondent by impersonating dead electors. The petition sought production of the ballot paper account and the marked copies of electoral rolls for five po…

The appellant, S. Rukmini Madegowda, was elected as a councillor (later mayor) of the Mysore Municipal Corporation. She filed an affidavit of assets that falsely omitted her husband's property, violating the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act (KMC Act) and the Representation of People Act (RP Act). An election petiti…

The appellant, Ajmera Shyam, challenged the election of Smt. Kova Laxmi, alleging that she failed to disclose income shown in her income‑tax returns for four financial years in the Form 26 affidavit, marking it as “Nil”. The High Court dismissed the election petition, holding that the omission was not a substantial def…

In the 1985 Bihar Legislative Assembly election for the Islampur constituency, the Returning Officer announced the petitioner as elected and issued a Form 22 certificate, but failed to prepare the required Form 21C declaration. Upon discovering that votes from one booth had not been counted, the officer revised the cou…

Ajit Singh challenged the 1991 Haryana Vidhan Sabha election of Bansi Singh under Section 81 of the Representation of People Act, alleging irregularities in vote counting, including a fenced counting hall that restricted agents' view, police presence, the appointment of counting assistants who were relatives of the ret…

In the 2008 Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, Neena Vikram Verma was declared elected by a single vote over Balmukund Singh Gautam, who filed an election petition alleging irregularities in postal ballot counting. Verma responded with a recrimination petition under Section 97 of the Representation of People…

In the Arunachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election of 2009, Markio Tado was declared elected over Takam Sorang. Sorang filed an election petition alleging booth capturing, and later sought forensic examination of voters' counterfoils (Form 17A) to prove impersonation and double voting. The Gauhati High Court Single…

The 2009 Legislative Council election for Nizamabad saw a narrow result, leading the defeated candidate to file an election petition alleging wrongful rejection of three votes and wrongful acceptance of one vote. The appellant, who had been declared elected, filed a recrimination petition under Section 97 of the Repres…

Dr. SMT. Shipra filed an election petition challenging the election of S.L. Khotwal on grounds of corrupt practices. The petition and its supporting affidavit were served on the returned candidate, but the copy of the affidavit omitted the notarized verification required by Form 25 under Rule 94‑A of the Conduct of Ele…

The appellant Roop Lal challenged the election of Nachhattar Singh to the Punjab Legislative Assembly on the ground that the Election Commission’s re‑allocation of the party symbol ‘hand’ to the respondent violated the Election Symbols (Reservation & Allotment) Order, 1968 and the provisions of the Representation of th…