Supreme Court reverses High Court's dismissal of election petition in Assam

This case concerns a Civil Appeal challenging the High Court's rejection of an Election Petition filed by the appellant against the successful candidate from the Karimganj Parliamentary Constituency, Assam. The core issue is whether defects in the attestation of the petition copies and the Form-25 affidavit warrant peremptory dismissal under Section 86 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

Appellant: Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury; Respondents: Kripanath Mallah & Ors.; Bench: Justice K. Vinod Chandran.

• The Court reversed the High Court's finding that the attestation of the Election Petition copies was improper, holding that different rubber stamps conveying the same meaning suffice under Section 81(3).
• The Court upheld the High Court's finding that the contention regarding missing pages was an afterthought and not a valid ground for dismissal.
• The Court found that the Form-25 affidavit copies supplied to the respondent lacked any semblance of notarization or attestation by the prescribed authority.
• The Court held that the defect in Form-25 is identical to the situation in Dr Shipra (Smt) v. Shanti Lal Khoiwal, where strict compliance is required for allegations of corrupt practices.
• The Court distinguished the present case from T.M. Jacob v. C. Poulose, noting that the latter involved a copy with an endorsement of affirmation, whereas the present case has no such indication.
• The Court noted that while the defect in Form-25 does not entail peremptory dismissal of the entire petition under Section 86, the parts containing allegations of corrupt practices must be struck off, and other independent grounds, if any, should be tried on merits.

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