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Publication of deposit of return, &c.
Punishment on conviction for illegal practice.
Report exonerat- ing candidate in ertain casca of corrupt and illegal practice by agente.
་
Power of election
court to except
innocent act from being illegal practice, &c.
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90. When any return of election expenses and the declarations made in respect thereof have been lodged with the returning officer, the returning officer shall, as soon as may be, cause a notice of the date on which the return and declarations in question have been lodged, and of the time and place at which they can be inspected, to be fixed in some conspicuous place in his office and to be published in the Government Gazette, and any person shall, on payment of a fee of one rupee, be entitled to inspect any such return or declaration and, on payment of thirty-six cents for every folio of 120 words, to obtain a copy or copies thereof or of any part thereof.
91.-(1) Any person committing an illegal practice shall on conviction by a District Court be liable to a fine not exceeding three hundred rupees and shall by conviction become incapable during a period of three years from the date of conviction of being registered as a voter or voting at any election and of being elected a member, and if at that date he has been elected a member, his election shall be vacated from the date of such conviction.
(2) A prosecution for an illegal practice shall not be instituted without the sanction of the Attorney-General.
EXCUSE FOR CORRUPT OR ILLEGAL PRACTICE.
92. Where, upon the trial of an election petition respecting an election under this Order, the election judge reports that a candidate at such election has been guilty by his agents of the offence of treating and undue influence, and illegal practice, or of any of such offences, in reference to such election, and the election judge further reports, after giving the Attorney-General an opportunity of being heard, that the candidate has proved to the court--
(a) That no corrupt or illegal practice was committed at such election by the candidate or his election agent and the offences mentioned in the said report were committed contrary to the orders and without the sanction or connivance of such candidate or his election agent; and (b) That such candidate and his election agent took all reasonable means for preventing the commission of corrupt and illegal practices at such election; and
(c) That the offences mentioned in the said report were of
a trivial, unimportant, and limited character; and
(d) That in all other respects the election was free from any corrupt or illegal practice on the part of such candidate and of his agents;
then the election of such candidate shall not, by reason of the offences mentioned in such report, be void, nor shall the candidate be subject to any incapacity under this Order.
93. Where, on application made, it is shown to an election judge or to a Judge of the Supreme Court by such evidence as seems to the Judge sufficient :—
(a) That any act or omission of a candidate at any election, or of his election agent or of any other agent or person, would, by reason of being the payment of a sum or the incurring of expense in excess of any maximum amount allowed by this Order, or of being a payment, engagement, employment, or contract in contravention of this Order, or of otherwise being in contravention of any of the provisions of this ' Order, be but for this Article an illegal practice; and
(b) That any such act or omission arose from inadvertence or from accidental miscalculation or from some other reason- able cause of a like nature, and in any case did not arise from any want of good faith;
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and under the circumstances it seems to the judge after giving the Attorney-General an opportunity of being heard, to be just that the candidate and the said election and other agent and person, or any of them, should not be subject to any of the consequences under this Order of the said act or omission, the judge may make an order allowing such act or omission to be an exception from the provisions of this Order which would otherwise make the same an illegal practice, payment, employment, or hiring, and thereupon such candidate, agent, or person shall not be subject to any of the consequences under this Order of the said act or omission.
94. (1) Where the return and declarations respecting election Authorised expenses of a candidate at an election have not been transmitted as excuse for non- required by this Order, or being transmitted contain some error or compliance with provisions as to return and false statement, then-
(a) If the candidate applies to an election judge or a Judge of declaration the Supreme Court and shows that the failure to transmit respecting
election expenses. such return and declarations, or any of them, or any part thereof, or any error or false statement therein, has arisen by reason of his illness, or of the absence, death, illness, or misconduct of his election agent or of any clerk or officer of such agent, or by reason of inadvertence or of any reasonable cause of a like nature, and not by reason of any want of good faith on the part of the applicant; or
(b) If the election agent of the candidate applies to an election judge or a Judge of the Supreme Court and shows that the failure to transmit the return and declarations which he was required to transmit, or any part thereof, or any error or false statement therein, arose by reason of his illness or of the death or illness of any prior election agent of the candidate, or of the absence, death, illness, or misconduct of any clerk, or officer of an election agent of the candidate, or by reason of inadvertence or of any reasonable cause of
a like nature, and not by reason of any want of good faith on the part of the applicant;
the Judge may, after such notice of the application, and on production of such evidence of the grounds stated in the application, and of the good faith of the application, and otherwise, as to the Judge seems fit, and after giving the Attorney-General an opportunity of being heard, make such order for allowing an authorised excuse for the failure to transmit such return and declaration, or for an error or false statement in such return and declaration, as to the Judge seems just.
(2) Where it appears to the Judge that any person being or having been election agent bas refused or failed to make such return or to supply such particulars as will enable the candidate and his election agent respectively to comply with the provisions of this Order as to the return and declaration respecting election expenses, the Judge before making an order allowing the excuse as in this Article mentioned shall order such person to attend before the Judge, and shall, unless he attends and shows cause to the contrary, order him to make the return and declaration, or to deliver a state- ment of the particulars required to be contained in the return, as to the Judge seems just, and to make or deliver the same within such time and to such person and in such manner as the Judge may direct, or may order him to be examined with respect to such particulars, and in default of compliance with any such order, such person shall be guilty of an illegal practice.
(3) The order may make the allowance conditional upon the making of the return and declaration in a modified form or within an extended time, and upon the compliance with such other terms as to the judge seems best calculated for carrying into effect the objects of this Order; and an order allowing an authorised excuse shall relieve
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
MC.O.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO