Be careful on staying poll results: SC to courts

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the judiciary not to interfere with the election results in casual manner and respect the will of the people. The allegations of corrupt practices defined under the Representation of People Act must be proved beyond reasonable doubt and in case of any doubt the benefit should go the elected candidates, said apex court.

Setting aside a Kerala high court order, a bench comprising Justice RV Raveendran and Justice Markandey Katju said: ���In a democracy many allegations and counter-allegations are made, and sometimes these are incorrect, but that does not mean that an election should be set aside straightaway on that account, as has been done in the present case, unless all the ingredients of Section 123(4) of the Act (Representation of People Act, 1951) are clearly made out, otherwise almost every election will have to be set aside���.

The court said that five ingredients required to establish a corrupt practice under Section 123(4) of the act are as follows: There should be a publication by the candidate or his agent, or by any other person, with the consent of a candidate or his election agent; the said publication should contain a statement of fact which is false; the person making such publication should either believe such statement to be false or not believe it to be true; such false statement should be in relation to the personal character or conduct of any candidate; such false statement should reasonably be calculated to prejudice the prospects of that candidate���s election.

Justice Katju writing the verdict for the bench said, ���Election results should not be lightly set aside and the will of the electorate should ordinarily be respected,��� adding, ���Setting aside an election is a serious matter.���

���In an election petition for proving an allegation of corrupt practice the standard of proof is like that in a criminal case. In other words, the allegation must be proved beyond reasonable doubt, and if two views are possible then the benefit of doubt should go to the elected candidate.���

The high court had declared the election of M J Jacob from Piravom legislative assembly constituency as illegal. The ground for such order was that a corrupt practice was committed by the publication of the pamphlet which was made by MJ Jacob���s election agents.