MUHAMMAD SALMAN vs NAVEED ANJUM S — 2021 SCMR 1675 SUPREME-COURT

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

MUHAMMAD SALMAN VS NAVEED ANJUM S. 9(1)---Representation of the People Act (LXXXV of 1976), S. 103AA [since repealed]---Powers and jurisdiction of the Election Commission ('the Commission') to declare a poll void under S. 9 of the Elections Act, 2017---Scope---Under S. 9 of the Elections Act, 2017 (the 2017 Act) the Commission could "call upon the voters in the concerned polling station or stations or in the whole constituency as the case may be to recast their votes in the manner provided for bye-elections"---Importantly there was a difference between the voters being asked simply to recast their votes on the one hand, and the election to be declared void on the other---Under S. 9 of the 2017 Act voters simply got another chance of choosing the person who was to represent them, but from the same slate as before, whereas under the repealed S. 103AA of the repealed Representation of the People Act, 1976 (the 1976 Act), which was the provision corresponding to S. 9 of the 2017 Act, the entire election was, as it were, scrapped and the whole exercise done afresh---However under the Explanation to S. 9(1) of the 2017 Act there was (only) one 'special case' when the Commission could declare polling at one or more polling stations or election in the whole constituency, void, i.e. if the turnout of women voters was less than ten percent of the total votes polled in a constituency, and the Commission concluded ('may presume') that the women voters had been restrained through an agreement from casting their votes---Under S. 9 of the 2017 Act for the most part, the Commission could only order a recasting of votes, and in only one special case, it could declare the election to be void---Parliament considered it expedient to set out a special case in this manner and repeat therein alone the language that had been used in the repealed S. 103AA(1) of the 1976 Act, while eschewing it in the main part of S. 9(1) of the 2017 Act, which made the legislative intent clear---By allowing the Commission power only to order a recasting of votes in the main part of the S. 9(1) of the 2017 Act, the Parliament intended to bring about a substantive change in the law compared to the 1976 Act---Jurisdiction to declare the poll void earlier conferred on the Commission (under S. 103AA of the 1976 Act) now applied only in respect of the special case, and not otherwise under S. 9(1) of the 2017 Act.

MUHAMMAD SALMAN vs NAVEED ANJUM S — 2021 SCMR 1675 SUPREME-COURT

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2021 SCMR