N.P. Ponnuswami .. Appellant Vs.

The Returning Officer, Namakkal Constituency, Namakkal, Salem District and four Others The appellant filed his nomination paper for election to the (then) Madras Legislative Assembly from the Namakkal Assembly Constituency in Salem District. The Returning Officer, at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers on 28.11.1951, rejected his nomination paper on certain grounds. Aggrieved by the order of the Returning Officer rejecting his nomination paper, the appellant moved the Madras High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution seeking a direction to the Returning Officer to include his name in the list of validly nominated candidates.

The High Court dismissed the writ petition on the ground that it had no jurisdiction to interfere with the order of the Returning Officer in view of the provisions of Article 329 (b) of the Constitution.

The appellant then moved the present appeal before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court also dismissed the appeal confirming the view of the High Court. The Supreme Court held that the word election in Article 329 (b) connotes the entire electoral process commencing with the issue of the notification calling the election and culminating in the declaration of result, and that the electoral process once started could not be interfered with at any intermediary stage by Courts.

Constitution of India (1950), Article 226 and 329 (b) Jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 If excluded by Article 329 (b) in

regard to order of Returning Officer rejecting nomination paper for election to the State Assembly.

Indira Gandhi v raj narain Smt.Indira Nehru Gandhi was elected to the House of the People from Rae Bareli Parliamentary Constituency in March, 1971. Her election was challenged by one of the rival candidates Shri Raj Narain, before the Allahabad High Court by an election petition. The High Court, by its judgment and order dated 12.6.1975, allowed the election petition and declared the election of Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi as void. The High Court held that Smt. Gandhi had procured assistance of Shri Yashpal Kapoor, a Gazetted Officer of the Government of India, the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police, Rae Bareli, the Executive Engineer, PWD, and the Engineer, Hydel Department, for her election campaign and had thus committed corrupt practices under Section 123 (7) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Aggrieved by the order of the Allahabad High Court, Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi filed the present appeal before the Supreme Court. A cross-appeal was also filed by Shri Raj Narain. During the pendency of these appeals, Parliament passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 1975. By this Amendment Act, several provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 were amended retrospectively. Further, Parliament also passed the Constitution (Thirty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1975. By this Amendment Act, a new Article 329-A was inserted into the Constitution to provide, inter alia, that the election to Parliament of a person, who holds office of Prime Minister or Speaker of the Lok Sabha at the time of such election or is appointed as Prime Minister or Speaker after such election,

shall be called in question only before a specially prescribed authority [and not before the High Court under Article 329 (b) of the Constitution]. Furthermore, by the said Amendment Act, Parliament also validated the election of Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi. The validity of the above mentioned two Amending Acts also became subject matter of the present appeals. One of the grounds of attack on the validity of these Acts was that many members of Parliament were subjected to preventive detention after the Proclamation of Emergency in June, 1975 and, therefore, these Acts had not been validly passed by Parliament in their absence. The Supreme Court, in the present appeals, upheld the validity of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 1975 and also the validity of the Constitution (Thirty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1975, except that part of the latter Act whereby Parliament had validated the election of Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi. Applying the law, as amended retrospectively by the aforesaid Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 1975, the Supreme Court upheld the election of Smt. Indira Gandhi to the House of the People, allowing her appeal, and rejecting the crossappeal of Shri Raj Narain. (A) Election Laws (Amendment) Act 40 of 1975), Pre. Constitution (Thirty-ninth Amendment) Act (1975), Pre. constitutional validity of cannot be challenged on ground that a number of Members of Parli