Representation of the People Act, 1950

Subhash Desai, elected from Goregaon as a Shiv Sena candidate, was challenged by Sharad J. Rao of Janata Dal for alleged corrupt practices. The election petition alleged that Desai had appealed to voters on religious grounds, published a false newspaper report to vilify Rao, and incited communal hatred, violating Secti…

The petitioners challenged the 1983 Assam Legislative Assembly election, alleging that the electoral rolls of 1979 were defective because they had not been revised as required by the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and allegedly contained non‑citizens. They filed writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitut…

The Calcutta High Court entertained a writ petition under Article 226 challenging the Chief Election Commissioner, the Chief Electoral Officer and the Election Commission of India for allegedly issuing vague and arbitrary directions for a de novo revision of West Bengal's electoral rolls and for proceeding with electio…

In April 1996 a biennial election was held for the Patna Teachers Constituency of the Bihar Legislative Council and Nawal Kishore Yadav was declared elected. The petitioner filed an election petition alleging that a large number of persons who were not qualified under the 1950 Act had been improperly enrolled in the el…

The Supreme Court examined whether persons residing in illegally constructed houses (encroachers) within a cantonment area are entitled to vote in Cantonment Board elections. The Court interpreted the Cantonment Act, 2006 and its definitions of "resident" and "inhabitant", holding that only a person who maintains a leg…

In the 2001 Kozhikode Assembly election, the appellant, election agent of the defeated candidate, alleged that after the 3 p.m. deadline for filing nominations, 19,045 names were deleted and 6,828 added to the electoral roll, rendering the election void. The High Court dismissed the petition, holding that the appellant…

The appellant, Iqbal Singh, contested the 1992 Faridkot Assembly election and filed an election petition under Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, alleging that the returned candidate and a party president conspired to induce another candidate to withdraw in exchange for his appointment as General…

In the 1984 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, K. Venkatachalam was declared elected despite not being an elector in the Lalgudi constituency, having impersonated another person of the same name. The defeated candidate, A. Swamickan, filed a writ petition under Article 226 seeking a declaration that Venkatachala…

The petitioners, appointed as Election Commissioners in October 1989, challenged the President’s January 1990 notifications that rescinded their appointments and abolished the two posts. They argued that the abolition violated the tenure provisions in the service rules, infringed the independence of the Election Commis…

The Public Interest Committee sought proportional representation for the Limboo‑Tamang Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and the legislative assemblies of West Bengal and Sikkim, arguing that the 2006 Delimitation Notification and the 2008 Delimitation Order failed to incorporate the tribes after their inclusion under …

The petitioner challenged the election of Dinesh Chaudhary to a Bihar Assembly seat reserved for Scheduled Castes, alleging that Chaudhary was a Kurmi (OBC) and not a Pasi (SC). The Returning Officer, despite lodging an FIR and having grave doubts about Chaudhary's caste certificate, accepted his nomination paper. The …

The Action Committee on Issue of Caste Certificate filed a writ petition under Article 32 challenging Maharashtra's denial of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe benefits to persons who had migrated from other states. The petition argued that the denial violated Articles 14, 15(1), 16(2), 19 and the spirit of Articles …

The case concerns the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which grants citizenship to certain migrants from Bangladesh to Assam based on cut-off dates (before 1.1.1966 and between 1.1.1966 and 25.3.1971). The provision was enacted to implement the Assam Accord. Petitioners challenged it …

The petitioner, Digvijay Mote, filed a public‑interest writ petition alleging that the electoral process in India was distorted, citing the absence of representation from Assam and Jammu & Kashmir in successive Lok Sabhas. He sought sweeping reliefs including staying the functioning of the existing Lok Sabha, restraini…

Kaka Joginder Singh alias Dharti Pakad challenged the election of K.R. Narayanan as Vice‑President of India, alleging (i) that the Returning Officer wrongly accepted Narayanan's nomination despite substantial defects, and (ii) that a whip issued by the Congress party amounted to undue influence under the Presidential a…

The appellant, Laxmi Kant Bajpai, challenged the election of Hazi Yaqoob to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on the ground that votes from 21 localities, allegedly outside the delimitation order, were improperly included in the electoral roll, violating Sections 100(1)(d)(iii) and (iv) of the Representation of th…

Jagannath Ramchandra Nunekar, an elector from Shivaji Nagar, sought to contest a bye‑election in Jaoli and applied for a certified copy of his entry in the Shivaji Nagar electoral roll. He received a copy on 8 January 1986 showing the latest publication date as 31‑Jan‑1984 and filed his nomination on 9 January, but the…

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) advertised vacancies for primary and nursery teachers and required OBC candidates to submit certificates issued by competent authorities. Several applicants submitted OBC certificates issued by authorities in their home states outside Delhi, which MCD rejected, citing a Delhi go…

The appellant D.B. Raju contested his election to the Karnataka Legislative Council, alleging that the 242 nominated members from 121 Mandal Panchayats were added to the electoral roll after the deadline for filing nomination papers (3 p.m., 3 June 1988). The High Court held that the roll was not updated by that time a…

The petition challenged the increase in seats of the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory Legislative Assembly and the constitution of a Delimitation Commission under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 and the Delimitation Act, 2002. The Court held that Article 170, which governs State legislatures, does not a…

The appellants Hari Shanker Jain and Hari Krishna Lal challenged the election of Sonia Gandhi to the Lok Sabha, alleging that she was not a citizen of India despite holding a certificate of citizenship under Section 5(1)(c) of the Citizenship Act, 1955. They also questioned the constitutional validity of the Citizenshi…

The State of Goa appointed its Law Secretary as State Election Commissioner (SEC) to oversee municipal elections that had been postponed due to COVID‑19. The SEC, acting under this dual role, issued a reservation order on 4 February 2021 and a subsequent election schedule, which were challenged in writ petitions allegi…

The petitioners challenged the view that a person confined in prison or in police custody, who is barred from voting under sub‑section (5) of Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, is not an elector and therefore cannot contest elections. The High Court held that such a person loses the statutory rig…

The appellant, a society, challenged the applicability of various Central and State statutes to the Sundargarh district of Orissa, which had been declared a Scheduled Area under Clause 6 of the Fifth Schedule. It contended that non‑tribals could not settle, vote, or contest elections there and that all constituencies s…

The petitions filed by Sikkimese of Nepali origin challenged the reservation of twelve seats for Bhutia‑Lepcha and one seat for the Buddhist Sangha in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly, arguing that these provisions violated Articles 14, 15(1), 325, 332(3) and the basic structure of the Constitution. The Court examined w…

Anukul Chandrapradhan filed a writ petition under Article 32 challenging Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which bars prisoners and persons in police custody from voting, except those under preventive detention. He contended that the provision violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution a…

The appellant, a candidate for the Orissa Legislative Assembly, filed his nomination from Gopalpur while being an elector in Sorada. He submitted an attested copy of the Sorada electoral roll as it existed on 21 July 1983, arguing that this satisfied the requirement of Section 33(5) of the Representation of the People …

The petitioners, an unaided school governed by the Delhi School Education Act, challenged the Election Commission’s practice of deploying teachers from government schools for election‑related duties during school hours, alleging that it disrupted education and violated the right to education. The Delhi High Court had d…

The Supreme Court examined the Election Commission's directives that empowered district collectors and police to determine a person's citizenship and delete alleged foreign nationals from electoral rolls. Petitioners challenged the procedure, arguing that notices relied solely on police reports, limited the documents t…

The land in Rajasthan was allotted to Chunilal, a Scheduled Caste (SC) landless person, who was induced to sign a sale deed in favour of Bhadar Ram, an SC resident of Punjab, through fraud by Puran Singh, a non‑SC. The trial court held the sale void as it violated Section 42 of the Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1955 and Secti…

The appellant, the State of Uttar Pradesh, challenged the High Court's order granting a compassionate appointment to Uttam Singh, whose father had served as a part‑time tubewell operator but was treated as a regular employee. The father had been appointed against a regular vacancy, served for 13 years, was transferred …

The appellant, a voter, filed an election petition seeking to declare the election of the first respondent, a legislator, void on four grounds: improper rejection of a dummy candidate’s nomination, acceptance of the respondent’s nomination despite a double entry in the electoral roll, acceptance of a Bahujan Samaj Part…

The writ petitions challenged the constitutional validity of the practice of appointing the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Election Commissioners (ECs) solely by the executive. The Supreme Court examined Article 324(2) and Constituent Assembly debates, concluding that Parliament was intended to enact a law gover…

Dr. Manmohan Singh, then a Union Cabinet Minister, filed Form No.1 under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 stating that but for his office he would be ordinarily resident in the Dispur Assembly constituency of Assam. The Election Commission questioned this declaration, initiated an enquiry and the Chief Election…

Sixteen villages that were originally part of Murshidabad district and fell within the Jangipur Parliamentary Constituency under the Delimitation Order, 1976, were later administratively transferred to the district of Maida due to a change in the course of the River Ganges. The residents filed a writ petition seeking a…

In the 1993 Nagaland Legislative Assembly election for Dimapur Constituency No.1, Vikheshe Sema was declared winner by a margin of 137 votes over Hokishe Sema. The respondent filed an election petition alleging that duplicate entries in the electoral roll had allowed some voters to cast more than one vote, thereby mate…