TMI Blog1984 (4) TMI 279X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... appellant falls short of the standard of proof required to bring his case within the four corners of s. 123 (4) of the Act. Thus the judgment of the High Court is affirmed and the appeal is dismissed - 2691 OF 1982 - - - Dated:- 2-4-1984 - SYED MURTAZA, FAZALALI, A. VARADARAJAN AND RANGNATH MISRA, JJ. For the Respondents : O.P. Sharma, K.R. Gupta, R.C. Gubrele, and R.C. Bhatia JUDGMENT This election appeal is directed against a judgment dated June 4, 1982 of the Punjab Haryana High Court dismissing the election petition filed by the appellant against the respondent. The present appeal arises out of an election to the Assembly constituency No. 3- Jullundur Cantt., which was held on 31.5.1980 and the result of which was declar ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... cessions made by the appellant, the case lies within a very narrow compass. The allegations made by the appellant against the respondent consist of two categories- (1) speeches having been made by the respondent or his friends near about the time of the election and after the respondent was nominated as a candidate, which amounted to serious character assassination of the appellant by projecting him as a murderer of one Asa Ram, who died as far back as 1978. According to the appellant, the respondent No. 1 carried out a vilifying compaign to show that he (appellant) was directly connected with the aforesaid murder so as to wean away the votes of the harijans of the locality and members of the Congress (l) party because Asa Ram was harij ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ere being no continuous link between those allegations and the allegations made in 1980, the first category of the charge against the respondent cannot be sustained, more particularly because in 1978 a fresh election was not in the offing because the Janata Government came into power in 1977 and in normal course would have completed its full term in 1982. Thus, at that time nobody could have predicted that the elections would be held only two years later which happened by a sudden spurt of events. In these circumstances, we would place no reliance at all so far as the first category of the allegations against the respondent is concerned. In N. Vimala Devi v. K. Madhusudhana Reddy( ) this Court completely ruled out documents containing ins ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... criminal charge and the principle of preponderance of probabilities would not apply to corrupt practice envisaged by the Act because if this test is not applied a very serious prejudice would be caused to the elected candidate who may be disqualified for a period of six years from fighting any election, which will adversely affect the electoral process. Keeping in view, therefore, the strict standard of proof required in such cases , we proceed to consider the evidence on which the appellant has relied in order to determine whether or not the corrupt practice alleged has been proved. In this connection, the first circumstance stressed before us was that a meeting was convened in Gopal Nagar, Ward No. 22, on May 18, 1980 where respondent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o have been corroborated by a news item published in an Urdu daily Milap whose Chief Sub-Editor (PW 5) was examined by the appellant. But the witness far from supporting his case has deposed that he had absolutely no personal knowledge of the Report made by Prashar which was published on 24.5.80. Moreover, it is very difficult for a court to rely on news items published on the information given by correspondents because that may not represent the true state of affairs. In Samant N. Balakrishna etc. v. George Fernandez Ors. etc. (1) while dwelling on the relevance and credibility of such type of news items this Court made the following observations: "The best proof would have been his own speech or some propaganda material such as leaf ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the evidence furnished by the aforesaid items is also of little value to the appellant. On the same principles of reasoning the reports of the meetings published in Milap regarding the speeches delivered on 17th and 28th May 1980 also suffer from the same infirmity. Strong reliance was placed on the document, Ex. RW-24, which had been admitted by the first respondent. We have gone through the entire speech published in the daily Milap on 18.5.80 and we do not find even a single word to connect the appellant with the murder of Asa Ram. In fact, the entire speech reproduced in the said Paper does not at all show that the speaker viz. the first respondent, made any reference to the appellant at all. In these circumstances, therefore, ev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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