Holding

The election petition was dismissed because the petitioner failed to prove that the improper acceptance of a nomination materially affected the result of the election.

Summary

In the 2000 Haryana Assembly election for the Ateli constituency, the appellant Santosh Yadav (INLD) lost to Narender Singh (INC) by a margin of 334 votes. Yadav challenged the result, alleging that the election was materially affected by the improper acceptance of the nomination of independent candidate Naresh Yadav, who had been convicted and was disqualified under the Representation of the People Act. The petition required the appellant to prove, with specific pleadings and positive evidence, how the votes cast for Naresh Yadav would have been distributed had his nomination been rejected. The Supreme Court held that the petitioner failed to discharge the strict burden of proof and that conjecture or speculation could not substitute for concrete evidence. Consequently, the Court affirmed the High Court’s order and dismissed the appeal, leaving the election result undisturbed.

Issues considered

The election of the returned candidate was materially affected by the improper acceptance of Naresh Yadav's nomination.
Whether the election petitioner discharged the strict burden of proof under Section 100(1)(d)(i) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
Whether the petition contained specific pleadings and positive evidence sufficient to infer the distribution of wasted votes.
Whether the High Court's decision should be set aside on the basis of the evidence presented.

Legislation cited

Representation of the People Act, 1951s. 100(1)(d)(i), s. 30, s. 8(1), s. 8(3), s. 83

Subjects

election petitionimproper acceptance of nominationmaterial effectburden of proofRepresentation of the People Actvoting patternspeculationconjecture

Judgment

SANTOSH YADAV A
v.
NARENDER SINGH

OCTOBER 30, 2001

[DR. A.S. ANAND, CJ., R.~. LAHOTI AND B
P. VENKATARAMA REDDY, JI.]

Election:

Representation of People Act, 1951-Sections 30 and 100(/)(d)(i)-
Election petition-Election of returned candidate challenged-Plea that the
c
result of the election materially affected due to improper acceptance of nomi-
nation of one of the candidates-Absence of specific pleading setting out
material facts and circumstances in support of the plea-Held, election peti-
tioner failed to prove his case-Court cannot give .findings on conjectures and
surmises. D

Election of returned candidate-Interference with-On account offault
,, of some other candidate-Held, should not be lightly interfered with unless
proved that the result of the election concerning returned candidate was
materially affected.. E
Evidence:

Burden ofproof-Election matter-Held, onus is on election petitioner-
Coun not to determine the mode of burden of proof, but to decide whether the
burden has been successfully discharged by the petitioner. F
In an assembly election, appellant, a candidate, sponsored by Indian
National Lok Dal (INLD) lost to the respondent (returning candidates), a
candidate sponsored by Indian National Congress (INC).

Appellant filed election petition challenging the election of the re- G
spondent on the ground that election of the respondent was materially
affected by improper acceptance or candidature or 'N', one or the 17
candidates in the election, who had secured votes more than 59 times the
margin of votes between the votes secured by appellant and the respond·
ent. Had the nomination or 'N' been rejected the votes polled by him would H
545
546 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A have· otherwise been polled ln favour ot the appellant because 'N' had
joined INLD in 1998 and having failed in getting ticket from the party he
contested as independent ·candidatt. On account of his close association ·
with INLD, he scored high bomber of votes getting pro INLD and anti
congress votes.
B
. High Court aeceptlng the plea of dlsqualification of 'N' held the
election vitiated~ but refu5ed to Rt Aside the election of the respondent
since the appellant had faUed in substantiating the plea raised in the
election petition.

C In appeal to this Court appellant contended that since in the election
there was anti-congress drive, respondent could not have secured more
votes than what he had secured, and the votes secured by 'N' being pro
INLD would all have been diverted to the appellant; and the votes secured
by 'N' should be treated as cut into INLD votes and the same or a major
D chunk of these votes would have gone to the appellants.

Dismissing the appeal, the Court

HELD : 1.1. The election petitioner-appellant has failed in
discharging the heavy burden, which lay on her, of proving that the result
E of election in so far as it concerns the returned candidates i.e. the respond·
ent, has been materially affected by the improper acceptance of the nomi-
nation of 'N'. (562-H]

1.2. The burden of proof placed on the election petitioner is very strict
and so difficult to discharge as nearing almost an impossibility. There is no
F
room for any guesswork, speculation, surmises or conjectures i.e. acting on
a mere P,OSSibility. Law requires proof..How far that proof should go or what
it should ~ontain is not provided by the legislature. [558-D]

1.3~ The burden of proving such material fact has to be discharged
G by the election petitioner by adducing positive satisfactory and cogent
evidence. H the petitioner is unable to adduce such evidence the burden is
not discharged and the election must stand. This rule may operate harshly
upon the petitioner seeking to set aside the election on the ground of
improper acceptance of a nomination paper, but the Court is not con-
H cerned with the inconvenience resulting from the operation of the law.
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH 547
Difficulty of proof cannot obviate the need of strict proof or relax the A
rigour of required proof. [558·B·C]

1.4. It cannot be held that merely because the number of wasted
votes bears a high degree of proportion to the margin of votes between the
winning candidate and the next highest candidate, an inference must al·
ways be drawn that the result of the election was materially affected in so B
far as the returned candidate is concerned. There must be definite evi·
dence available before the Court enabling an inference being drawn as to
how the wasted votes would have been distributed amongst the contesting
candidates. The Court cannot conjecturise or return findings on surmises.
[SS6·F] c
Paokai Haokip v. Rishang and Ors., AIR (1969) SC 663; Tek Chand v.
Dile Ram, [2001) 3 SCC 290; Shiv Charan Singh v. Chandra Bhan Singh &

- Ors., AIR (1988) SC 637; Chandrasekhara Rao v. V. Jagapathi Rao & Ors.,
[1983] Supp. 2 SCC 229; Vashisht Narain Sharma v. Dev Chandra & Ors.,
AIR (1954) SC 513 and Samant N. Balakrishna v. George Fernandez & Ors.,
D
AIR (1969) SC 1201, referred to.

2. Even if burden of proof placed on election petitioner is strict, it is
for the courts to apply it. It is for the Legislature to consider whether it
would be altered. If there is another way of determining the burden, the E
. law should say it and not the courts. It is only in given instances that taking
the law as it is the courts can reach the conclusion whether the burden of
proof has been successfully discharged by the election petitioner or not.
[556-H; 557-A]

3.1. 'N' does not have any fixed party affiliation; he has been often F
· changing his party membership. It cannot therefore ht: said that the votes
which he secured were necessarily a cut into INLD vote bank. [561-B]

3.2. On the pleadings and the evidence adduced, the election peti-
tioner/appellant has utterly failed in demonstrating the pattern of voting
G
in the Constituency in question. There were 17 contesting candidates in the
field. It is difficult to make a reasonable guess, much less with any cer·
tainty that if 'N' was excluded then such number of votes would have been
taken out of the votes polled by him and fallen into the box of appellant as
to make her successful. [562-F-GJ
H
548 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2001) SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A 4. A case of result of the elettlon, in so far as it concerns the returned
candidate, having been materially altected by the improper acceptance of
any nomination, within the meaning of Section lOO(l)(d)(i) qf the Repre·
sentation of the People Act, 1951 has to be made out by raising specific
pleadings setting out all material facts and adducing cogent e~idence so as
to enable a dear nnding being arrived at on the distribution of wasted
B
votes, that Is, the manner in which the votes would have been distributed if
the candidate, whose nomination paper was improperly accepted was not
in the fray. In the present case all material facts and circumstances are
conspicuous by their absence. [557·F·G]

c 5. Parliament has drawn a clear distinction between an improper
rejection of any nomination and the improper acceptance of any nomina-
tion. In the former case, to avoid an election, it is not necessary to further
prove that the result of the election has been materially affected. There is a
presumption in the case of improper rejection of a nomination paper that
it has materially affected the result of the election. The fact that one of '
D
several candidates for an election was kept out of the arena is by itself a
very material consideration. The officer rejecting the nomination paper of
a candidate may have kept out the most desirable candidate, the most
desirable from the point of view of the other candidates, from seeking
election and therefore Parliament felt that an improper rejection of any
E nomination paper is conclusive proof of the election being void and there·
fore dispensed with the need of evidence being tendered in proof of the
result of the election having been materially affected. On the other hand, in
the case of an improper acceptance of a nomination paper, proof is re-
quired by way of evidence demonstrating that the coming into the arena of
F an additional candidate has had the effect on the election in such a manner
that the best choice of the electorate was excluded. [553-B·F]

6. The success of a winning candidate at an election should not be
lightly ·interfered with. This is all the more so when the election of a
successful candidate is sought to be set aside for non fault ·of his but of
G someone else. That is why the scheme of Section 100 of the Act, especially
clause (d) of sub-section (1) thereof clearly prescribes that inspite of the
availability of grounds contemplated by sub-clauses (i) to (iv) of clause (d),
the election of a returned candidate shall not be avoided unless and until it
was proved that the result of the election, in so far as it concerns a returned
candidate, was materially affected. [553-F-H]
H
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINOH [LAHOTI, J.] 549
Vashisht Narain Sharma v. Dfv Chandra & Ors., AIR (1954) SC 513; A
Samant N. Balakrishna v. Geargo Ffmandez & Ors., AIR (1969) SC 1201;
Shiv Charan Singh v. Chandra Bhan Singh & Ors., AIR (1988) SC 637 and

- Tek Chand v. Dile Ram, [2001] 3 SCC 290, referred to.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURlSDICI'lON : Civil Appeal No. 1306 of 2001.
From the Judgment and Order dated 9.1.2001 of the Punjab and Haryana
B
High Court in E.P. No. 1 of 2000.
...
WITH
C.A. No. 2412 of 2001.
c
P.S. Misra, Mahabir Singh, Bhoop Singh, Ajay Pal, S.R. Sharma and Ms.
Aishwarya Bhati for the Appellant.

Rakesh Dwivedi, Rao Ranjit Singh and Ms. Niranjana Singh for the
Respondent.
D
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

R.C. LAHOTI, J. Pursuant to a notification issued by the Election
Commission of India under Section 30 of the Representation of the People Act,
1951 (hereinafter 'the Act', for short) in the month of January 2000 several
constituencies, including 89 Ateli Assembly Constituency, in the State of E
Haryana, were called upon to elect members for the Haryana Legislative
Assembly. Several nomination papers were filed on the dates appointed for
filing nomination papers. After scrutiny held on 4th February and withdrawal
of candidature by a few candidates on 7th February there were 17 candidates,
including the appellant and respondent, who remained in the fray for Ateli
Constituency. It may be stated that Smt. Om Kala, wife of a candidate Shri F
Naresh Yadav, had also filed her nomination, She is alleged to be a cover
candidate for her husband. Once the nomination of Shri Naresh Yadav was
found to be in order and accepted Smt. Om Kala withdrew her candidature.
The constituency went to polls ori 25.2.2000. On .counting, the contesting
candidates were found to have secured the following numbers of votes:- / G
Sr. No. Name of the Party affiliati~n No. of valid
candidate votes polled
1. Rao Om Parkash, Engineer BSP 5819
2. Sh. Jagat Singh JD[U] 113 H
550 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A 3. Sh. Narender Singh INC 31755
•' 4. Sh. J.D. Yadav HVP 500
5. Smt. Santosh INLD 31421
D/o Sh. Bhagwan Singh

B 6. Sh. Yogesh Kumar RID 205
7. Sh. Laxmi Narain SP 785
8. Sh. Vinod Kumar SJP[R] 212
9. Sh. Om Parkash Yadav IND 18
c 10. Sh. Om Parkash IND 178
11. Sh. Naresh Yadav IND 19855
12. Comrade Balbir Singh IND 476
13. Sh. Ram Singh IND 111 .
D 14. Sh. Rama Nand Sharma IND 194
15. Smt. Santosh W/o Yudhvir IND 40
16. Sh. Satbir IND 92
17. Sh. Surender IND 18
E
In the above table the party affiliation of the candidates is also given.

The respondent Shri Narender Singh who was a candidate sponsored by
Indian National Congress having secured 31755 votes, the highest number of
votes, was declared elected. Smt. Santosh, the appellant, who was a candidate
F sponsored by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) secured 31421 votes i.e. next
below the highest number of votes. Thus, there was a margin of 334 votes
between the votes secured by the respondent and the appellant.

The appellant filed an election petition putting in issue the election of the
respondent. One of the grounds taken in the election petition was that the
G
nomination of Shri Naresh Yadav was improperly accepted as he had been
convicted under section 304-B and Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code and
was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and one year
respectively, besides the fine, under the judgment and order of sentence pro-
nounced by the Court of Sessions at Gurgaon on 30-31/3/1990. Though an
H
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 551
appeal was filed by him before the High Court and the High Court had A
suspended the execution of the sentence of imprisonment, nevertheless he
remained a person convicted of offences falling under clause (a) of sub-
section (1) and sub-section (3) of Section 8 of the Act and hence disqualified.
The plea as to disqualification of Shri Naresh Yadav has been upheld by the
High Court. Neither the factum of conviction of Shri Naresh Yadav nor the B
disqualification flowing therefrom is in issue in this appeal. However, inspite
... of holding that the election held in 89-Ateli Assembly Constituency was
vitiated on account of nomination of Shri Naresh Yadav having been improp-
erly accepted, the learned designated Election Judge of the High Court of
Punjab and Haryana has refused to set aside the election of the respondent as,
in his opinion, the election-petitioner/appellant has failed in discharging the
c
onus of proving that the result of the election, in so far as it concerns the
respondent (the returned candidate), had been materially ~fected. The election
· petition having been dismissed, the judgment of the High Court has been put
in issue by this appeal preferred under Section 116A of the Act. The question

-
arising for decision in this appeal is: whether the High Court was right in D
forming the opinion that on the established facts and circumstances of the case
the appellant had failed in proving that the election of the respondent was
materially affected by improper acceptance of the nomination paper of Shri
Naresh Yadav.
E
The appellant's case in this regard is that Shri Naresh Yadav was an
active worker/leader of INLD and was closely associated and well acquainted
with the cadre, workers, supporters and well-wishers of INLD. He was earlier
a member of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and had contested 1996 Assembly
Elections on the BSP ticket. In August 1998, he joined INLD and actively
F
participated in all the programmes, functions and activities of INLD carried
by Shri Om Prakash Chautala, president of INLD and Shri Ajay Singh
Chautala, president of the youth wing of INLD. The respondent had exten-
sively toured the constituency accompanying Shri Om Prakash and Shri Ajay
Singh. · He was an aspirant of INLD ticket for contesting as an official
candidate of INLD from Ateli constituency. However, the choice of INLD fell G
on the appellant. Shri Naresh Yadav, having failed in getting the ticket of
INLD, revolted and filed his nomination as an independent candidate. On
account of his clos~ association with the INLD eadre he secured a high number
of votes cutting into pro-INLD and anti-Congress votes which would have
otherwise been polled in favour of the petitioner. Shri Naresh Yadav secured H
552 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A 19855 votes, which is more than 59 times the margin of votes between the votes
secured by the respondent and the appellant. If only the nomination paper of
Shri Naresh Yadav would have been rejected and his candidature would have

B
been excluded the votes polled by him would have definitely been polled by
the appellant. There was a pro-INLD wave in the entire State of Haryana in
the Assembly Elections of the year 2000. It was in effect an anti-Congress
-
wave. The respondent could not have secured more votes than what he had
secured and in as much as the votes secured by Shri Naresh Yadav were
otherwise pro-INLD votes, they would all have been diverted to the appellant.
These averments have been denied by the respondent in his written statement
as already stated. The learned designated Election Judge has formed an
c opinion, on appreciation of evidence, that the appellant had failed in substan-
tiating the plea raised in the election petition. Almost similar arguments, as
were advanced in the High Court, have been advanced before this Court, of
course with added vigour by the learned senior counsel for the appellant.
Before we deal with the merits of the submission so made and enter into

-
.D appreciation of evidence in the light of the submissions made, it will be useful
to set out the relevant law.

Section I 00 of the Act, in so far as relevant for the purpose of this appeal,
reads as under:-

"100. Grounds for declaring election to be void.-

(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) if the High Court is
of opinion -

(a) xxx xxx xxx xxx
F
(b) xxx xxx xxx xxx

(c) that any nomination has been improperly rejected ;

or
G
(d) that the result of the election, in so far as it concerns a
returned candidate, has been materially affected --

(i) by the improper acceptance of any nomination, or

H (ii) xxx xxx xxx xxx
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 553
(iii) xxx xxx xxx xxx A
(iv) xxx xxx xxx xxx

the High Court shall declare the election of the returned candidate to
be void". ·
B
The Parliament has drawn a clear distinction between an improper rejec-
tion of any nomination and the improper acceptance of any nomination. In the
former case, to avoid an election, it is not necessary to further prove that the
result of the election has been materially affected. The underlining reasoning
for this was well set out by a Constitution Bench of this Court in Surender Nath
Khosla and Anr. v. S. Dalip Singh & Ors., AIR (1957) SC 242. There is a
c
presumption in the case of improper rejection of a nomination paper that it has
materially affected the result of the election. The fact that one of several
candidates for an election was kept out of the arena is by itself a very ~terial
consideration. The officer rejecting the nomination paper of a candidate may
have kept out the most desirable candidate, the most desirable from the point D
of view of electors and the most formidable candidate from the point of view
of the other candidates, from seeking election and therefore the Parliament felt
that an improper rejection of any nomination paper is conclusive proof of the
election being void and therefore dispensed with the need of evidence being
tendered in proof of the result of the election having been materially affected. E
On the other hand, in the case of an improper acceptance of a nomination paper,
proof is required by way of evidence demonstrating that the coming into the
arena of an additional candidate has had the effect on the election in such a
manner that the best choice of the electorate was excluded.
F
It is well settled by a catena of decisions that the success of a winning
candidate at an election should not be lightly interfered with. This is all the
more so when the election of a successful candidate is sought to be set aside

.. for no fault of his but of someone else. That is why the scheme of Section 100
of the Act, especially clause (d) of sub-section (1) thereof clearly prescribes
that in spite of the availability of grounds contemplated by sub-clauses (i) to
(iv) of clause (d), the election of a returned candidate shall not be avoided
G

unless and until it was proved that the result. of the election, in so far as it
concerns a returned candidate, was materially affected.

A few decisions were cited at the Bar and it will be useful to make a H
I
554 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A review thereof. In Vashist Narain Sharma v. Dev Chandra & Ors., AIR (1954)
SC 513, the candidate whose nomination was improperly accepted had secured
1983 votes while the margin of votes between the winning candidate and the
next below candidate was 1972. This court held that having called upon to
record a finding that "the result of the election has been materially affected",
B the result should not be judged by the mere increase or decrease in the total
number of votes secured by the returned candidate but by proof of the fact that
wasted votes would have been so distributed between the contesting candidates
as would have brought aboutthe defeat of the returned candidate. The Court
emphasized the need of proof by affirmative evidence and discarded the test
of a mere possibility to say that the result could have been different in all
c probability. The question is one of fact and has to be proved by positive
evidence. The Court observed that the improper acceptance of a nomination
paper may have, in the result, operated harshly upon the petitioner on account
of his failure to adduce the requisite positive evidence but the Court is not
concerned with the inconvenience resulting from the operation of the law. The
D Court termed it "impossible" to accept the ipse dixit of witnesses coming from
one side or the other to say that all or some of the votes would have gone to
one or the other on some supposed or imaginary ground. In Samant N.
Balakrishna V. George Fernandez & Ors., AIR (1969) SC 1201, this Court
recognized that proof of material effect on the result of the election in so far
E .as a returned candidate is concerned on account of a miscarriage occasioned
by improper acceptance of nomination paper at an ele~tion may be a simple
impossibility. The judge has to enquire how the election would have gone if
the miscarriage would not have happened and that enquiry would result vir-
tually placing the election not in the hands of the constituency but in the hands
F of the Election Judge. The Court held that neither the matter could be consid-
ered on possibility nor there was any room for a reasonable judicial guess. The
law requires proof; how far that proof should go or what it should contain is
not provided by the legislature; but the insistence on proof can not be dispensed
with. In Shiv Charan Singh v. Chandra Bhan Singh & Ors., AIR (1988) SC
G 637, this court pointed out that proof of material effect on the result of the ~-

election in a case of improper acceptance of nomination paper involved the
harsh and difficult burden of proof being discharged by the election petitioner
adducing evidence to show the manner in which the wasted ballots would have
been distributed amongst the remaining validly nominated candidates and in
the absence of positive proof in that regard the election must be allowed to
H
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 555
stand and the Court should not interfere with the election on speculation and A
conjectures.

All the above said decisions w.ere referred to, dealt with and followed
in a recent decision of this Court in Tek Chand v. Dile Ram, [2001] 3 SCC
290. This court held that the mere fact that the number of votes secured by
B
a candidate whose nomination paper was improperly accepted, was greater
(more than three times in that case) than the margin of the difference between
the votes secured by the returned candidate and the candidate securing the next
higher number of votes, was not by itself conclusive proof of material effect
on the election of the returned candidate.
c
It is common knowledge that voting and abstention from voting, as also
the pattern of voting, depend upon a complex variety of factors, which may
defy reasoning and logic. Depending on a particular combination of contesting
candidates and the political parties fielding them, the same set of voters may
cast their ballots in a particular way and may respond differently on a change D
in such combination. Voters have a short-lived memory and not an inflexible
allegiance to political parties and candidates. Election manifestos of political
parties and candidates in a given election, recent happenings, incidents and
speeches delivered before the time of voting may persuade the voters to change
their mind and decision to vote for a particular party or candidate giving up
E
their previous commitment or belief. In Paokai Haokip v. Rishang & Ors.,
AIR (1969) SC 663, this court has taken judicial notice of the fact that in India
all the voters do not always go to the polls and that the casting of votes at an
election depends upon a variety of factors and it is not possible for anyone to
predicate how many or which proportion of votes will go to one or the other
of the candidates. F

The learned senior counsel for the appellant placed heavy reliance on
Chhedi Ram v. Jhilmit Ram & Ors., AIR (1984) SC 146, and submitted that
the ratio of the decision squarely applies to the present case and should govern
the decision thereof. It was submitted that in Chhedi Ram's case the candidate G
whose nomination was improperly accepted had obtained 6710 votes which
was almost 20 times the difference between the number of votes secured by
the successful candidate and the candidate securing the next highest number
of votes. So also the number of votes secured by the candidate whose nomi-
nation was improperly accepted bore a fairly high proportion to the number of
H
556 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A votes secured by the successful candidate - a little over 1/3rd. The learned
senior counsel submitted that on availability of these twin factors it was held ·
by this Court that 'the result of the election might safely be said to have been
affected'; while the case of the present appellant stands on a much better
footing in as much as the number of votes i>e.!lured by Shri Naresh Yadav is
B almost 59 times of the margin between the votes secured by the appellant and
the respondent.

At the first blush the submission appears to be attractive but is found to
be devoid of merit on closer scrutiny. Chhedi Ram's case came up for the
consideration of this Court at least on three occasions. In Shiv Charan's case
C (supra), Tek Chand's case (supra) and J. Chandrasekhara Rao v. V. Jagapathi
Rao & Ors., (1983] Supp. 2 SCC 229, this Court has held that Chhedi Ram's
case rested 'on its own facts' and did not over-rule the earlier decisions of this
Court namely the decisions in Vashisht Narain Shanna's case (supra) and
Samant N. Balakrishna's case (supra). In Chhedi Ram's case not only the
D proportion of wasted votes was 20 times of the margin, there were six candi-
dates in all in the election fray. The Court formed an opinion that a reasonable
probability was raised in favour of holding that the result of the election had
been materially affected. The decision in Chhedi Ram's case does not set out
detailed facts and circumstances and the nature of the evidence adduced which
E may have persuaded the Court in arriving at a finding in favour of the election
petitioner. In view of the earlier decisions of this Court existing before Chhedi
Ram's case was decided, it cannot be held that merely because the number of
wasted votes bears a high degree of proportion to the margin of votes between
the winning candidate and the next highest candidate, an inference must
always be drawn that the result of the election was materially affected in so far
F
as the returned candidate is concerned. There must be definite evidence
available before the Court enabling an inference being drawn as to how the
wasted votes would have been distributed amongst the contesting candidates.
The Court cannot conjecturise or return findings on surmises.

G Observations in Shiv Charan Singh's case (supra) are pertinent and
apposite. It is no doubt true that the burden which is placed by law on the
election petitioner is very strict; even if it is strict it is for the courts to apply
it. It is for the Legislature to consider whether it should be altered. If there
is another way of determining the burden, the law should say it and .not the
H courts. It is only in given instances that, taking the law as it is the courts can
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 557
reach the conclusion whether the burden of proof has been succes.sfully dis- A
charged by the election petitioner or not.

A word about the pleadings. Section 83 of the Act mandates an election
petition to contain a concise statement of the material facts on which the
petitioner relies. The rules of pleadings enable a civil dispute being adjudicated
B
upon by a fair trial and reaching a just decision. A civil trial, more so when
it relates to an election dispute, where the fate not only of the parties arrayed
before the Court but also of the entire constituency is at a stake, the game has
to be played with open cards and not like a game of chess or hide and seek.
An election petition must set out all material facts wherefrom inferences vital
to the success of the election petitioner and enabling the Court to grant the relief c
prayed for by the petitioner can be drawn subject to the averments being
substantiated by cogent evidence. Concise and specific pleadings setting out all
relevant material facts, and then cogent affirmative evidence being adduced in
support of such averments, are indispensable to the success of an election
petition. An election petition, if allowed, results in avoiding an election and D
nullifying the success of a returned candidate. It is a serious remedy. There-
fore, an election petition seeking relief on a iround under section 100 (1) (d)
of the Act, must precisely allege all material facts on which the petitioner relies
in support of the plea that the result of the election has been materially affected.
Unfortunately in the present case all such material facts and circumstances are E
conspicuous by their absence.

The law as regards the result of election having been materially affected
in case of improper acceptance of nomination may be summed up as under :-

(1) A case of result of the election, in so far as it concerns the returned F
candidate, having been materially affected by the improper acceptance of any
nomination, within the meaning of Section 100 (1) (d) (i) of the Representation
of the People Act, 1951 has to be made out by raising specific pleadings setting
out all material facts and adducing cogent evidence so as to enable a clear
finding being arrived at on the distribution of wasted votes, that is, the manner G
in which the votes would have been distributed if the candidate, whose nomi-
nation paper was improperly accepted, was not in the fray.

2. Merely because the wasted votes are more than the difference of votes
secured by the returned candidate and the candidate securing the next highest H
558 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A number of votes, an inference as to the result of the election having been
•
materially affected cannot necessarily be drawn. The issue is one of fact and
the onus of proving it lies upon the petitioner.

3. The burden of proving such material effect has to be discharged by the
election petitioner by adducing positive, satisfactory and cogent evidence. If
B the petitioner is unable to adduce such evidence the burden is not discharged
and the election must stand. This rule may operate harshly upon the petitioner
seeking to set aside. the election on the ground of improper acceptance of a
nomination paper, but the Court is not concerned with the inconvenience
resulting from the operation of the law. Difficulty of proof cannot obviate the
c need of strict proof or relax the rigour of required proof.

4. The burden of proof placed on the election petitioner is very strict and so
difficult to discharge as nearing almost an impossibility. There is no room for
any guesswork, speculation, surmises or conjectures i.e. acting on a mere
D possibility. It will not suffice merely to say that all or majority of wasted votes
might have gone to the next highest candidate. The law requires proof. How
far that proof should go or what it should contain is not provided by the
legislature.

5. The casting of votes at an election depends upon a variety of factors and it
E is not possible for any one to predicate how many or which proportion of the
votes will go to one or the other of the candidates. It is not permissible to accept
the 'ipse dixit' of witnesses coming from one side or the other to say that all
or some of the votes would have gone to one or the other on some supposec;l
or imaginary ground.
F
Having so stated the law, we now proceed to assess and evaluate the
evidence adduced by the parties.

In all there are 10 witnesses examined on behalf of the election peti-
tioner/appellant. Balwant Singh, PW 1, the Returning Officer has deposed to
G only certain undisputed facts. Sant Lal, PW 2, has produced result-sheets of
Haryana State Legislative Assembly Elections held in the years 1982, 1987,
1991, 1996 and 2000. Pawan Kumar, PW 3, is a photographer and Ashok
Wadhwa, PW 4, and Rohtas Yadav, PW 5, are press-reporters, who have
deposed to Shri Naresh Ydadav having joined INLD publicly in early August,
H 1998 in the presence of Shri Om Prakash Chautala and other leaders of INLD
1
i
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 559
which is a fact not disputed by the respondent at this stage. Ram Kumar, PW A
6, District Office Secretary of INLDi has deposed to Shri Naresh Yadav and
the appellant - both having been aspirants for INLD party ticket but in mid-
September, 1998 the ticket having been denied to Shri Naresh Yadav and the
appellant having been given the party ticket whereafter Shri Naresh Yadav
made a rebellion and chose to contest as an independent candidate. Again, this B
is also a fact not seriously disputed at this stage. The statements of remaining
four witnesses are relevant and need to be scrutinized for the purpose of
deciding the main controversy in this appeal.

Bali Ram, PW 7, is a resident of village Silarpur while Sher Singh, PW
8, is a resident of village Shyampura. Both of them have deposed to there C
having been two main groups in their respective villages in the election. The
two groups were of the Congress and the INLD. None of them speaks of
having any knowledge about the entire constituency. None of the two has
deposed to, he himself having been a voter and exercised his own franchise.
Bali Ram, ?W 7, states Shri Naresh yadav having made in -roads into the votes D
of the appellant. Obviously, the statement is confined to his own village. Sher
Singh, PW 8, too deposed that Shri Naresh Yadav contesting as an independent
candidate affected the votes of INLD and "those votes were not in favour of
Congress" . What has been stated by these two witnesses does not go beyond
being 'ipse dixit' of the witnesses. There is nothing on record to show how E
many voters were there in the two villages and which way the polling went as
amongst the different candidates.

Smt. Santosh Yadav, PW 9, the appellant herself, deposed about "some
party workers" having gone with Shri Naresh Yadav without disclosing the
names of such party workers. She further stated that the party votes were F
divided because Shri Naresh Yadav asked for the votes in the name of Shri Om
.erakash Chautala - a fact not alleged in the election petition. This is apart from
the fact that who were such voters and at what point of time they were asked
to vote for Shri Naresh Yadav is neither averred in the pleadings nor stated in
her statement. According to her own admission Shri Om Prakash Chautala was G
touring the constituency and had come to support her in the constituency.
Satbir Singh, PW 10, is General Secretary of INLD of District Mohindergarh
and was In-charge of election campaigning in Ateli Constituency in February,
2000. He claims to have toured the Ateli Constituency during the elections and
therefrom he deposed that on account of Shri Naresh Yadav having contested H
560 SUPREME COURT REPORTS (2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A as an independent candidate 'many of the workers and voters of INLD' sup-
ported him. The statement has remained as vague and general as is of the
appellant herself. The witnesses PW 7, PW 8 and PW 10, are all party workers
and would naturally have some bias in favour of their own party and. would
be obviously interested in the success of the appellant in the election petition.
B Their evidence also does not advance the case of the appellant.

The documents which have been brought on record by the election
petitioner show the State level results of Haryana. But what is relevant is the
trend of voting and distribution of votes amongst contesting candidates in Ateli
Constituency and not necessarily the entire State. The election petitioner did
c not bring on record Form 20 document for the year 2000 elections or of the
earlier elections so as to spell out what was the trend of voting in this particular
Constituency. Form 21-E tendered in evidence establish that in· the past
elections; it was the Congress Party which had won election in Ateli in 1982,
1991 and 1996. In 1982 elections Congress (J) candidate was returned to
D Legislative Assembly having secured 27298 votes and Shri Banshi Singh,
father of Shri Naresh Yadav secured 27105 votes and lost. In 1991, Shri
Banshi Singh secured 19343 votes as a Congress candidate and won the
election. In the year 1996 there were 47 candidates contesting from Ateli
constituency. INC candidate won having secured 22114 votes. However, Om
E Prakash, engineer contesting on Haryana Vikas Party ticket, Ajit Singh
(Samajvadi Party), Naresh Yadav (BSP), Nihalsingh (Samta Party) and Bharat
Singh (Independent) secured 19270, 15686, 9846, 7534 and 3328 respectively.
In the year 2000 itself one Shri Om Prakash, engineex:, a BSP candidate secured
5819 votes, not a totally insignificant number and in the event of Shri Naresh
F Yadav being excluded he would also have shared some of the wasted votes,
apart from other candidates out of 17 in all. No definite trend or mood of voters
is, thus, projected from the statistics so made available. In Paokai,Jlaokip 's
case (supra), Chief Justice M. Hidayatullah said that statistics cannot be called
in aid to prove such facts, because it is notorious Jhat statistics can prove
G anything and made to lie for either case. It has also come mthe evidence that
father of Naresh Yadav has been a Sarpanch and Smt. Om Kala, the wife of
Shri Naresh Yadav is herself active in politics and contested several elections.
She had contested Zila Parishad Elections within the constituency of Ateli on
two occasions and on both occasions she was elected. In the year 1996, Shri
Naresh Yadav had contested elections as the candidate of Bahujan Samaj Party
H
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 561
and had polled 9846 votes, almost half of the votes polled by him in the A
impugned elections. Thus, Shri Naresh Yadav and his family members are
active in poiitics and they have their own political base. Shri Naresh Yadav
does not have any fixed party affiliation; he has been often changing his parlly
membership. It can not therefore be said that the votes which he secured were
necessarily a cut into INLD vote bank. It is difficult to agree with the submis- B
sion of the learned senior counsel for the appellant that while as a candidate
of BSP, Shri Naresh Yadav polled 9846 votes in 1996 elections, his rise by
9885 votes in the year 2000 elections should be attributed to, and be treated
as, a cut into INLD votes and these 9885 votes or a major clunk of them would
have otherwise gone to the appellant. Shri Naresh Yadav having been continu-
ously in politics, he may have gradually strengthened his political base and
c
thereby secured a spurt in the number of his voters and supporters. It needs
hardly any evidence to hold, as one can safely assume that the appellant must
have openly and widely propagated herself as INLD candidate and made it
known to the constituency that she was the official candidate sponsored by
INLD and Shri Naresh Yadav was not an INLD sponsored candidate and was
D
a defector. Therefore, it is difficult to subscribe to the suggested probability
that a11y voter committed to INLD ideology would have still voted for Shri
Naresh Yadav merely because he had for a period of two years before defection
remained associated with INLD.
E
In Vashist Narain Sharma's case (supra) the election petitioner made an
attempt at discharging the onus of proof by producing a number of electors
before the Tribunal who had stated that all or some of the votes would have
gone to the candidate who had polled the next highest number of votes in the
absence of the improperly nominated candidate he would have polled majority F
of valid votes. It was held that the statement of the witnesses as to in what
manner votes would have been distributed among the remaining contesting
candidates could not be relied upon in determining the question of material
effect on the election of the returned candidate. The Court observed that it was
impossible to accept ipse dixit of witnesses coming from one side or the other G
to say that all or some of the votes would have gone to one or the other on some
supposed or imaginary grounds. Paokai Hapkip 's case (supra) witnesses were
brought forward to state that a number of voters did not vote because of the
change of venue and certain other incidents. This Court held that this kind
of evidence was merely an assertion on the part of a witness who could not have
H
562 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2001] SUPP. 4 S.C.R.
A spoken for 500 voters. The Court also refused to accept the statement even
of village Headman that the whole village would have voted in favour of one
candidate to the exclusion of the other.

The learned senior counsel for the appellant extensively read out a few
passages from the decision of this Court in Tek Chand's case (supra). The
passages relate to marshalling of evidence. During discussions this Court has
made certain observations as to the missing pieces of the facts and circum-
stances which by their absence had a debilitating effect on the evidence ad-
··'
duced. The learned senior counsel submitted that the evidence which was
missing in Tek Chand's case has been adduced and made available in the
c present case and therefore the finding on the crucial issu~ should lean in favour
of the appellant. We are afraid such a submission can not be accepted. We
see no acceptable logic behind the argument that if what was miss_ing in Tek
Chand's case, would have been available, the finding would necessarily have
.'
been in favour of the election petitioner.
D
We also do not see force in the submission of the learned senior counsel
for the respondent that Smt. Om Kala had withdrawn her candidature because
of her husband's nomination having been accepted and if the nomination of
her husband Shri Naresh Yadav would have been rejected than she being a
cover candidate, would have contested the election and therefore the result of
E
the election can not be said to have been materially affected. Suffice it to
observe that we have to deal with what has happened and not with an imaginary
situation which could have happened but did not happen.

In our opinion, on the pleadings and the evidence adduced, the election
F petitioner/appellant has utterly failed in demonstrating the pattern of voting in
Ateli Constituency. There were 17 contesting candidates in the field. It is
difficult to make a reasonable guess, much less with any certainty, that if Shri
Naresh Yadav was excluded then such number of votes would have been taken
out of the votes polled by him and fallen into the box of appellant as to make
G her successful. -

In as much as we have found, agreeing with the High Court that the
election petitioner/appellant has failed in discharging the heavy burden, which
lay on her, of proving that the result of election, in so far as it concerns the
H returned candidate· i.e., the respondent, has been materially affected by the
SANTOSH YADAV v. NARENDER SINGH [LAHOTI, J.] 563
improper acceptance of the nomination of Shri Naresh Yadav, the judgment of A
the High Court cannot be faulted. The respondent has preferred cross objec-
tions. Without going into the question of maintainability thereof we have
found no merit therein and the learned senior counsel for the respondent, did
not, in all fairness, seriously press the same. The appeal and the cross objec-
tions, are held liable to be dismissed and are dismissed accordingly, though B
without any order as to the costs.

K.K.T. Appeals dismissed.

-~ I