[2017 Manipur Assembly Polls] HC Sets Aside Election Of Congress MLA Y Surchandra, Declares BJP Candidate As Winner

While declaring his election as null and void, the single-Judge Bench of Justice MV Muralidharan also declared that the petitioner, BJP candidate M Rameshor, is the "duly elected member" of the said constituency.

The order was passed on an election petition filed by Rameshor in 2017, alleging that Surchandra had not disclose full particulars of his assets and liabilities in the poll affidavit in 2017.

It was alleged that he failed to disclose vital information pertaining to his Non-Agricultural lands, loan or dues to Bank/Financial Institutions and deposits in Bank Accounts of his spouse.

On a perusal of the oral and documentary evidence recorded during the course of 18 hearings, the Court came to a finding that though the Respondent (Y Surchandra Singh) contended that he has not concealed any material information in his nomination papers, nothing has been produced to establish his case.

As record in the order,

"The documents produced and are referred to by the first respondent do not substantiate his case. On the other hand, the concealment of vital information in the nomination affidavit in Form 26 of the first respondent viz., failure on the part of the first respondent to disclose the details of his wife, failure to disclose the details of vehicles and failure to disclose the non-agricultural land of the first respondent have been clearly established by the petitioner."

Thus, the Court held that Surchandra was guilty of undue influence and corrupt practice for non-disclosure of assets and sources of income, under Section 123(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Reliance was placed on Lok Prahari v. Union of India & Ors., (2018) 4 SCC 699.

The election result was declared void under section 100(1)(d)(i) of the RP Act. The Court held,

"the nomination of the candidate which is stated to be valid, is later on found to be not valid, as in the present case, the very basis and foundation for sustaining the election of the returned candidate goes. In other words, once the foundation is taken away, the election will have no basis to stand and thus will be rendered otiose. He cannot be treated to have been elected at all."

Interestingly, Surchandra was disqualified a few months ago from being a member of the Manipur Legislative Assembly under the Anti-Defection Law as per the 10th Schedule of Indian Constitution.

Declaration of Rameshor as the duly elected MLA

In the 2017 elections, Surchandra was declared as the successful candidate by a margin of a meagre 600 votes. The Petitioner, runner up in the election had got 10503 votes whereas Surchandra had got 11133 votes.

In his election petition, Rameshor had urged the Court to declare him as the duly elected member from the Kakching constituency for 2017 polls.

This prayer came to be allowed by the Court in terms of Section 84 of the RP Act which states that a Petitioner may, in addition to claiming a declaration that the election of all or any of the returned candidates is void, claim a further declaration that he himself or any other candidate has been duly elected.

The Court held,

"Section 84 of the RP Act enables the petitioner to seek a declaration to declare him as elected candidate in case the election of the returning candidate was declared as void. Thus, the relief sought by the petitioner falls within the ambit of Section 84 of the RP Act."

Case Title: Mayanglambam Rameshwar Singh v. Y Surchandra Singh & Anr.

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