Supreme Court sets aside Karnataka HC dismissal of election petition by BJP's A Manju against JD(S) Prajwal Revanna

The Supreme Court on Monday set aside a Karnataka High Court judgment dismissing an election petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader A Manju challenging the election of Janata Dal (Secular) candidate Prajwal Revanna for Hassan constituency in the 2019 parliamentary elections [A Manju v. Prajwal Revanna]..A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh was dealing with a challenge to a January 2020 judgment by the Karnataka High Court which had held that the petition by Manju was not supported by an affidavit in Form 25, as prescribed under Rule 94A of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, even though there were allegations of corrupt practices..The Supreme Court held that it cannot agree with the conclusion arrived at by the High Court that the non-submission of Form 25 would lead to the dismissal of the election petition especially in the light of the fact that there was a verifying affidavit in support of the election petition."If we look at the election petition, the prayer clause is followed by a verification. There is also a verifying affidavit in support of the election petition. Thus, factually it would not be appropriate to say that there is no affidavit in support of the petition, albeit not in Form 25. This was a curable defect and the learned Judge trying the election petition ought to have granted an opportunity to the appellant to file an affidavit in support of the petition in Form 25 in addition to the already existing affidavit filed with the election petition," the apex court said.Revanna, grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, was accused of not disclosing details about his assets in his poll affidavit. Prajwal was declared the winner with 6,76,606 votes while Manju was the runner-up, with 5,35,282 votes.Revanna was one of the three non-BJP candidates to win in 2019 from Karnataka where BJP had secured 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the State.Manju had challenged the results before the High Court which dismissed the same as "not maintainable” since it was filed without an affidavit and thus incomplete in terms of the provisions of the Conduct of Election Rules of 1961.The led to the present appeal before the Supreme Court.The top court adverted to its judgments of in Ponnala Lakshmaiah v. Kommuri Pratap Reddy & Ors and GM Siddeshwar v. Prasanna Kumar, to hold that the High Court should have allowed Manju to cure the defect by filing the affidavit in prescribed format."While the requirements to be met in the election petition may be technical in nature, they are not hypertechnical, as observed in the Ponnala Lakshmaiah case," the Court held.The Bench added that whether a violation was made out or not is a matter of trial which cannot be shut out without going into the merits of the plea."A Manju states the case clearly and in no uncertain terms with supporting material in the election petition. Whether the violation is made out by Prajwal Revanna or not would be a matter of trial but certainly not a matter to be shut out at the threshold," the top court ruled..The apex court, therefore, proceeded to permit Manju to file an appropriate affidavit within 15 days. "Further proceedings in the election petition are required to be taken up urgently as almost two and a half years have gone on the preliminary skirmishes rather than the meat of the matter, which we are sure the single judge of the high court would so do," the Bench stated..[Read Judgment]