New Delhi, Aug 24 The Supreme Court on Monday restored an election petition filed by Congress candidate Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, challenging the election of the BJP's Kripanath Mallah, who won the 2024 Lok Sabha poll contest against him from Karimganj in Assam.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran allowed Choudhury's plea, saying it finds absolutely no reason to sustain the April 4, 2025, order of the Gauhati High Court dismissing the petition.
"We restore the election petition to the files of the high court for consideration as required hereinabove," the bench said while allowing the appeal.
It said the allegations of corrupt practice, entailing civil consequences of disqualification for a maximum period of six years, apart from conviction, mandates strict compliance of the statutory requirement and a true copy supplied to the returned candidate containing the attestation by the prescribed authority and certified to be a true copy by the election petition in his or her own signature was held to be a sine qua non.
The bench said in an earlier decision of the court, it was held that no general principle of universal application can be laid down and it was categorically held that substantial compliance would not be sufficient either.
"Admittedly, in the present case, Form-25 was affirmed before a commissioner of affidavits, as available in the original before court. Suffice it to request the high court to verify and if due attestation of the affirmation on oath is available, proceed with the matter on merits, and if not available, not to permit the allegation of corrupt practices to be urged and proceed with the consideration on the merits of the other grounds, if any are pleaded," it added.
The bench said the apex court has held that corrupt practices are to be proved to the hilt and an element of vagueness would vitiate an election petition, which would lead to a dismissal in limine (at the threshold) when there is a true copy supplied with mistakes of vital and serious nature.
The court said the absence of an affirmation of an allegation of corrupt practices by a commissioner of affidavits is not fatal since it neither amounts to a misrepresentation nor does it mislead the returned candidate.
Choudhary has challenged the Gauhati High Court's decision of April 4, last year, rejecting his plea at the threshold on the ground that the election petition was not served properly to the returned candidate, certain pages of it were not attested properly and some were missing.
In his plea before the high court, challenging the election of Mallah, Choudhury had alleged corrupt practices within the meaning of the Representation of the People Act.
Mallah had opposed the petition citing non-compliance with the provisions of the RP Act and sought its outright dismissal.
Choudhury lost the 2024 poll contest from Karimganj to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate by more than 18,000 votes.
