Madras High Court: a runner-up cannot be declared elected under the Representation of the People Act in a multi-cornered contest

The Madras High Court struck off part of an election petition seeking a declaration that a losing candidate be declared duly elected in place of a successful MLA whose election was challenged on grounds of corrupt practices under Sections 123(1) and 123(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Justice P.B. Balaji first held that Section 84 of the Act, which lets a petitioner seek a declaration that they themselves or another candidate was duly elected, is not confined to a contesting candidate; an elector who files an election petition under Section 81 can invoke it too, since the Act's definition of 'elector' is not limited by Section 84's wording.

But relying on the Supreme Court's rulings in Prakash Khandre v. Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and the three-judge decision in Muniraju Gowda v. Munirathna, the Court held that such a declaration under Section 101(b) can be granted only where the contest was between exactly two candidates; a court cannot presume how votes cast for a returned candidate found guilty of corrupt practices would have been redistributed among three or more rival candidates. Since the constituency's election in this case was contested by more than two candidates, with the margin between the second and third-placed candidates under one percent, the relief seeking a declaration in favour of the runner-up could not succeed even if the corrupt-practice allegations were proved, and was struck off under Order VI Rule 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure as legally unsustainable.