Mudholkar, J. - (1.)The short point for consideration in this appeal from the judgment of the Punjab High Court is whether the Election Tribunal, Rohtak, was justified in dismissing the election petition under sub-section (3) of S. 90 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (hereafter referred to as the Act) preferred by the appellant on the ground that it did not comply with the provisions of S. 82 of the Act.
(2.)The appellant is a voter in 64-Hissar City constituency of the Punjab Legislative Assembly and the respondent was a candidate for election to the Assembly from the constituency, the polling in which took place on February 24, 1962. Eleven persons had been nominated for election from that constituency, one of whom was Suraj Bhan, brother of the respondent. Five candidates, including Suraj Bhan, withdrew their candidature within the time prescribed for the purpose with the result that names of only six candidates were published under S.38 of the Act. Several grounds were set out by the appellant in his election petition for setting aside the election. One of those grounds was that the respondent, his agents and other persons acting with the consent of the respondent were guilty of committing corrupt practices. In paragraph 9(c)(i) of the petition as presented to the Election Commission on April 8, 1962 the appellant had alleged as follows:
"That the respondent by himself and through his agents with his consent has been guilty of the corrupt practice of promoting or attempting to promote feelings of enmity and hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on grounds of religion, community and language. The respondent was in fact a candidate sponsored by Shri Devi Lal of Chautala a rebel Punjab Congress leader who had left the Congress fold and joined hand with Professor Sher Singh, Leader of the Hariana Lok Samiti. The very creed of this Samiti was the promotion of or attempt to promote feelings of enmity and hatred between the residents of the Punjab region and residents of Hindi region. This Samiti has in a way divided the Punjab State into two communities Punjabis and non-Punjabis. The chief target of the leaders, workers, candidates sponsored by the Samiti and their agents and workers were the Congress candidates, who were pitched against them in every constituency of the Hindi region whom they described as being the henchmen of Shri Pratap Singh Kairon, the Chief Minister of the Punjab, who according to respondent and his agents was a staunch Sikh and Chief supporter of the cause of the residents of Punjabi region at the cost of the residents of the Hindi region, and specially the non-Sikhs among them. They described the Congress candidate Shri Balwant Rai in this constituency as being an enemy of the residents of Hindi region specially and non-Sikh residents of the Hindi region and preached that if elected he would be a great obstacle in the way of the non-Sikh residents of the Hindi region and would be a cause of the death knell of Hindi language as well. This poisonous propaganda on the basis of two communities Punjabis and non-Punjabis and also on the basis of two religious Sikhs and non-Sikhs and on the basis of two languages Hindi and Punjabi was resorted to by the respondent, his chief agent Shri Devi Lal with his consent throughout the constituency right from the date of the filing of the nomination paper by the respondent up to the date of poll through the various pamphlets, posters and the writings in the paper titled as 'Hariana Kesri' a mouthpiece of the ideology of Shri Devi Lal rebel congress leader. These pamphlets, posters and newspapers containing the poisonous propaganda were got published by the respondent or by the office of the group headed by Ch. Devi Lal from the office of the 'Hariana Kesri' controlled by Shri Devi Lal with the consent of the respondent and got distributed by the respondent through his workers and agents throughout the constituency at a large scale. These writings will be got produced later on when available."

(3.)In the written statement filed by the respondent on July 11, 1962 he raised certain preliminary objections, one of which was to the effect that the petition failed to comply with the requirements of the provisions of S. 83(1) of the Act as it did not contain a concise statement of material facts and as it did not set out full particulars of the alleged corrupt practices. According to him, the allegations were false and that the vagueness consisted in failing to give the names of the agents or other persons who were alleged to have committed corrupt practices. The appellant in his reply asserted that all the known particulars so far as possible in respect of the various allegations of corrupt practices had been given in detail. Thereupon the Tribunal framed the following preliminary issue:
"Whether any of the allegations of alleged corrupt practices as detailed in paragraph 9 of the petition, are vague, indefinite and devoid of particulars as required by law and if so, to what effect -
After hearing the parties on this preliminary point the Tribunal gave its finding on September 3, 1962. According to the Tribunal the petition suffered from the defects pointed out by the respondent. It, therefore, gave an option to the appellant either to apply for leave to amend the petition or to amplify the particulars of corrupt practices in the light of the observations made by it in its order and directed that if the appellant did not choose to do either of these things the charges which were vague would be struck of. In pursuance of this order the appellant made an application for amendment of the petition and filed along with it an amended petition. This was done on September 6, 1962. One of the portions of the petition which was amended was the latter part of para 9(c)(i) and as amended it reads thus:
"This poisonous propaganda on the basis of two communities Punjabis and non-Punjabis and also on the basis of two religions Sikhs and non-Sikhs and on the basis of two languages Hindi and Punjabi was resorted to by the respondent, his chief agent Shri Devi Lal with his consent throughout the constituency through the various pamphlets. One of the pamphlets titled 'Phoolon ke Sej se Kanton ki rah per mager kion ' contianing the speech of Shri. Devi Lal datcd 6-5-1962 of the type the one of which is attached with this amendment petition, the title page of which purports to have been printed from the Half-Tone Arts Press, Delhi by one Dr. Ganpati Singh Verma, 3, Darya Ganj, Delhi as its publisher and the rest of which purports to have been printed at Shivji Mudranalya, Kinari Bazar, Delhi, and the other one titled, 'The case of Hariana and Hindi Region by Professor Sher Singh, President, Hariana Lok Samiti presented to Dass Commission in which the case of Hariana was put in before the Dass Commission by Professor Sher Singh in such a way as to spread hatred between the Sikhs and non-Sikhs population of Punjab State through the various figures given in it of the State Government servants of all ranks employed in the two regions, were distributed by respondent No. 1, his brother Sh. Suraj Bhan and his near relation shri Laxmi Chand Gupta, Contractor Gurgaon at a large scale in Hissar town on the 11th February, 1962 and at Adampur Mandi and Uklana Mandi on the 12th February, 1962 and at Barwala on the 13th February, 1962."
On September 9, 1962 the respondent filed a written statement in answer to the amended election petition. In respect of paragraph 9(c)(i) the respondent besides denying the contents of that paragraph, again asserted that the allegations were vague. This was followed by the replication by the appellant dated September 11, 1962. On September 12, 1962 issues were framed. On that, very day the respondent preferred an application before the Tribunal for dismissing the petition under S. 90(3) of the Act. One of the grounds on which he sought the dismissal of the petition was that Suraj Bhan who was alleged by the appellant to have been guilty of corrupt practices was a candidate validly nominated for election, that he was a necessary party to the petition and that as he was not made a party thereto the petition was liable to be dismissed under sub-section (3) of S. 90 of the Act. On November 16, 1962 the appellant filed a reply to the respondent's application in which he said that the allegation against Suraj Bhan was not of corrupt practices and that Suraj Bhan could not be said to have been a candidate for election within the meaning of S. 82(b) of the Act. He further contended that the requirement of making a candidate a party does not extend to the amended petition especially where the amended petition was filed in pursuance of an order of the Tribunal. On the same day he made an application under O. 1, R. 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure for permission to join Suraj Bhan as a respondent to the petition. In paragraph 9 of that application the appellant made an alternative prayer to the effect that in case he was not permitted to join Suraj Bhan as a respondent to the petition he may be allowed to further amend the petition by the deletion of the words "his brother Shri Suraj Bhan" in paragraph 9(c)(i) of the amended petition, in the 5th line from the bottom of Cl. C (i) of para 9. His application was opposed by the respondent. The Tribunal, after hearing the parties dismissed the appellant's application dated November 16, 1962 as well as the election petition. The appellant then preferred an appeal before the High Court of Punjab but that appeal failed. The High Court, however, granted him a certificate under Art.133(1)(c) of the Constitution and that is how it has come up to this Court.