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Tuesday, May 14

An order for inspection of ballot papers cannot be made to support vague pleas made in the petition


Markio Tado vs. Takam Sorang, Civil Appeal No. 8260 of 2012, Decided on May 10, 2013



The election was challenged and inspection of ballot papers to support the claim was prayed for.


The Hon’ble Court held:

an order for inspection of ballot papers cannot be made to support vague pleas made in the petition, not supported by material facts, or to fish out evidence to support such pleas. In the present case, there was no material whatsoever to justify the production of the register of counterfoils of votes in Form 17-A


The Court noted following case law:

“Ram Sevak Yadav v. Hussain Kamil Kidwai, reported in AIR 1964 SC 1249, which has held that an order for inspection cannot be granted as a matter of course having regard to the secrecy of the ballot papers. To seek such an order two conditions are required to be fulfilled:

(i) that the petition for setting aside an election contains an adequate statement of the material facts on which the petitioner relies in support of his case; and

(ii) the tribunal is prima facie satisfied that in order to decide the dispute and to do complete justice between the parties inspection of the ballot papers is necessary.”


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