V.K.SHARMA, J. - (1.)THE present order shall dispose of issue Nos.2 to 5, as extracted below, which have been treated as preliminary issues in this election petition filed by the petitioner, runner up candidate, under Sections 80, 80A and 81 read with Section 100 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 ( in short 'the 1951 Act'), calling in question the election of respondent No.1, returned candidate, from 5 -Bhattiyat Assembly Constituency of Whether reporters of Local Papers may be allowed to see the judgment?.Yes. H.P. Legislative Assembly held in 2012: -
2) Whether the election petition is liable to be dismissed in limine for lack of material facts and particulars, as alleged? ......OPR -1. 3) Whether the election petition is not maintainable for want of any cause of action, as alleged? ......OPR -1. 4) Whether the election petition and the accompanying annexures have not been verified in accordance with law and if so, its effect? .....OPR -1. 5) Whether the election petition is bad for mis -joinder of parties and is liable to be dismissed on this count? ......OPR -1.

(2.)THE petitioner after stating his educational, professional and political credentials has averred that in 1985, he was elected to the State Legislative Assembly on Congress ticket. Thereafter, he was re -elected as an MLA in 1993 and 2003 as an independent candidate. In 2007, he was again re -elected as MLA for the 4th time. As an MLA, he remained Chairman of various House/Apex Govt. Committees and remained Chairman, State Finance Commission from 2003 to 2007. However, according to him, he lost 2012 election "unfortunately due to the malafide attitude of the Presiding Officers appointed to conduct the election and also with due and active connivance of the respondents, suffered a defeat by just a nominal margin of 111 votes only."
It is averred that consequent upon issuance of the requisite notification by the Governor, Himachal Pradesh, in the month of October 2012, for holding general election to the State Assembly, the Election Commission of India vide notification issued under Section 80 of the 1951 Act, fixed the following election schedule: - JUDGEMENT_5_TLHPH0_2014.jpg

(3.)AS many as six candidates including the petitioner being Congress candidate and respondent No.1 sponsored by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) fought the election. Whereas respondent No.1 who got 18098 votes won the election, the petitioner polled 17987 votes, the margin being 111 votes. One of the two independent candidates namely, Sh. Bhupinder Singh Chauhan scored 9870 votes. The score of others was in hundreds, the highest being 960. Sh. Kalu Ram, who was a candidate of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 482 votes, Ms. Sudesh Kumari, who was put up by Communist Party of India (CPI) polled 960 votes and the other independent candidate, Sh. Sushil Kumar Dhiman received 549 votes.