Representation of the People Act, 1951: Amendment to election petition – Election petition filed by the respondent challenging the election of returned candidate on the grounds of improper acceptance of the nomination papers of returned candidate and improper receipt of invalid votes and improper rejection of valid votes – A year later, the respondent filed the application to amend the election petition to include certain averments – Application allowed by the High Court – On appeal, held: Election petitionerrespondent No.1 never took corrupt practice as a ground to challenge the election of the returned candidate – Pleadings sought to be taken by way of amendment so as to indicate that the nomination form was not to be accepted for non-compliance of the statutory requirements, cannot be said to be of introduction of any new cause of action or new ground of challenge – It cannot be said that the ground as sought to be pleaded does not have any foundation in the petition as filed; or that pleading of such particulars would change the character of the election petition – Thus, the High Court rightly allowed the amendment application.
Kisan Shankar Kathore v. Arun Dattatray Sawant and others : (2014) 14 SCC 162 : [2014] 7 SCR 258;
Krishnamoorthy v. Sivakumar and Others: (2015) 3 SCC 467 : [2015] 4 SCR 987; Dhartipakar Madan
Lal Agarwal v. Rajiv Gandhi: 1987 (Supp) SCC 93 : [1987] SCR 369 ; Sethi Roop v. Malti Thapar (Mrs.) and Others:(1994) 2 SCC 579 : [1994] 1 SCR 1002 – referred to.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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