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Whether the Election petitioner is entitled for a further declaration as duly elected as a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from No. 209, Rajapalayam (SC) Assembly Constituency, Tamil Nadu in the election held on 8.5.2006.
To what other reliefs the petitioner is entitled to.
Findings of the High Court :
7) The High Court has observed that in the normal circumstance the burden of proof in an election petition lay on the petitioner, but, in view of the admission of the respondent, the appellant herein, that she was a Christian before converting to Hinduism in the year 1994, the burden of proof is shifted and it is for the appellant to show that she had renounced Christianity. The High Court after appreciating the evidence, both oral and documentary adduced by the respondent/Election petitioner is of the view that the circumstances in which the community certificate was granted was highly suspicious, as it was issued within two days of the receipt of the application. The court has further stated that it was likely that the appellant used her political influence to get the certificate issued in her favour. The High Court also has taken strong exception to the fact that the original conversion certificate was not produced by the appellant and only a duplicate copy of the same was produced.

Though in her testimony, the appellant had stated that the original conversion certificate was issued in the evening on 27.08.1994 and it was received by her uncle Santhakumar from Arya Samaj, Madurai and remained in his custody. The Certificate was not delivered to her and after the filing of the election petition, she asked her uncle Santhakumar to hand over the certificate to her. Thereafter, being informed by her uncle about the loss of the original certificate, she requested him to obtain a duplicate copy of the certificate and accordingly Santhakumar obtained Ex.R.13-duplicate copy of conversion certificate. Agreeing with most of the contentions of the election petitioner, the High Court has come to the conclusion that the burden of proof placed on appellant was not discharged satisfactorily. In conclusion, the Court has held that the appellant belongs to Pallan Christian Community and she could not have contested the Assembly elections from reserved constituency and, therefore, declared her election as void. However with regard to declaring the next candidate as successful, the High Court has stated that the election law in this country does not recognize such a recourse to be adopted. Submissions of the learned counsel for the appellant:

29) It is a settled principle of law that to prove a conversion from one religion to another, two elements need to be satisfied. First, there has to be a conversion and second acceptance into the community to which the person converted. It is obvious that the need of a conversion cannot be altogether done away with.

30) The appellant had examined herself as RW3. In her examination in chief, she has categorically stated, that as a Hindu, in her household they are celebrating festivals like Pongal, Vinayaka-Chaturthi etc. She has also stated that since her birth she has been living as a Hindu and following Hindu customs and tradition and her relatives are also treating her as Hindu and all her relatives are Hindus. She has also stated that she has not gone to any Church and she does not know about Christianity and that form of worship. In her constituency people knew her only as Chandra and not as Glory Chandra. She has also stated that she contested in the elections held for Rajapalyam Panchayat Union Council from reserved constituency and nobody raised any objection. It has also come in her evidence that she wanted to reaffirm her faith in Hinduism and therefore she approached Arya Samaj, Madurai and after making her go through all the rituals, the Arya Samaj, Madurai issued a certificate of reconversion to Hinduism bearing Serial No. E56 dated 27.8.1994 (Ex. R13) and the same was received by her uncle Santnakumar and it is only when the election petition was filed, on her enquiry she was told that the original certificate that was received by him has been lost and therefore she requested him to obtain duplicate copy of the certificate. It has also come in her evidence that her marriage was performed as per Hindu customs and her husband is Murugan, who also belongs to Hindu Pallan Community. She asserts that she lived as Hindu and continue to live as Hindu by following Hindu Customs and Traditions. She has faced a lengthy cross examination. The learned senior counsel Sri Ramamurthy has taken us through the entire evidence. We are afraid that whether anything worthwhile has been brought on record to discredit the veracity of the evidence of the appellant and in fact whatever suggestion that was put to falsify the conversion certificate issued by Arya Samaj, Madurai, the witness has denied all those suggestions. The learned counsel for the appellant contended that it is well settled that there is no requirement in law of producing any clinching evidence on any formal ceremony of conversion to Hinduism. Our attention in drawn to the observations made by this Court in Perumal Nadar vs. Ponnuswamy (1970) 1 SCC 605; Per contra, the learned senior counsel for respondents 1 and 2 would contend that the appellant has not proved her claim of reconversion to Hinduism by producing primary evidence viz., the original conversion certificate issued by Arya Samaj. The High Court while considering this issue has noticed that the appellant failed to produce the original certificate issued by Arya Samaj, Madurai and further has not examined Santnakumar, who was supposed to have received and retained the original certificate issued by the Arya Samaj and the original records have not been summoned from Arya Samaj and no steps have been taken to summon the responsible person from Arya Samaj to prove that the appellant underwent conversion. Therefore, the claim made by her about her reconversion cannot be accepted. We do not agree with the reasoning of the High Court. It is true that a party who wishes to rely upon the contents of a document must adduce primary evidence of the contents, and only in the exceptional cases will secondary evidence be admissible. However, if secondary evidence is admissible, it may be adduced in any form in which it may be available, whether by production of a copy, duplicate copy of a copy, by oral evidence of the contents or in another form. The secondary evidence must be authenticated by foundational evidence that the alleged copy is in fact a true copy of the original. It should be emphasized that the exceptions to the rule requiring primary evidence are designed to provide relief in a case where a party is genuinely unable to produce the original through no fault of that party. In the instant case, it is the specific case of the appellant that in the year 1994 that is much before the Assembly elections which was held in the year 2006, she had undergone all the rituals in Arya Samaj only for the purpose of reaffirmation of Hindu faith and the conversion certificate issued by Arya Samaj was received and acknowledged by her uncle Santnakumar who had accompanied her. It is also her specific case that she did not take back the certificate from her uncle, since she was of the view the same may not be required for her purpose. It is only when the election petition was filed, it order to proof her case of reaffirmation of her faith in Hinduism, she came to know that her uncle has lost the certificate, which necessitated her to obtain a duplicate copy of conversion certificate from Arya Samaj, Madurai. This part of her evidence is not even challenged by the petitioner. In fact the contents of the documents would clearly establish that it was issued for the second time on the request made by the appellant, after she was told by her uncle Santnakumar that the original certificate received by him in the year 1994 is lost by him. In our view, a perusal of the conversion certificate (Ex. R13) would amply demonstrate that the appellant has successfully proved her claim of re-affirmation of Hindu faith by undergoing rituals of conversion in the Arya Samaj, Madurai.

58) There is nothing on record to show that the community certificate was issued illegally or in contravention of the valid procedure. The Election petitioner should have examined the person in charge while the certificate was being issued to bring to light any alleged malpractice in the issuance of the said certificate. The validity of the issuance of the community certificate is presumed unless shown otherwise by the respondent no.1, who clearly failed to do so. It is also baffling to note that the conversion certificate from the Arya Samaj was not examined in detail by the respondents inspite of the High Court making a strong observation in this regard. No proof by way of documents or oral evidence was provided to show how the certificate was granted and what procedure was followed. It is also pertinent to mention that no one raised any objection to the appellant filing her nomination for the Assembly elections in 2006 from the reserved constituency. All the issues have been raised after the appellant won the election from the Rajapalayam constituency. As pointed by the High Court, it is not necessary to read too much into contributions made into religious bodies and institutions as it is open for people outside the particular community also. Hence based purely on the evidence before this court and the observations made by us in this regard, the Election petitioner has not been able to prove conclusively that the appellant professes Christianity. The evidence produced is, contradictory and smacks of political rivalry.