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Showing contexts for: answer interrogatories in Rajendra Kumari Bajpai vs Ram Adhar Yadav & Others on 6 August, 1975Matching Fragments
It was then contended that even though express powers for inspection and discovery were conferred on the Tribunal under s. 92 of the Act of 1951, yet by virtue of the amendment under Act 47 of 1956 this express provision was deliberately deleted, which shows that the Parliament intended to give special protection to the elected representatives so as not to compel them to answer interrogatories. This is no doubt an attractive argument, but on closer scrutiny it does not appear to be tenable. The argument completely overlooks the object of the Amendment Act 47 of 1966. By virtue of this enactment a basic change in the trial of election petitions was sought to be introduced. Before 1966 the power to try election petitions was conferred on the Tribunal which was not a civil court and, therefore, special powers had to be conferred on it. In. fact clause (g) of s. 92 of the Act of 1951 extracted above clearly shows that the Tribunal was deemed to be a civil court hence there was the necessity of conferring special powers contained in O.XI of the Code of Civil Procedure on the Tribunal to avoid further doubts. After the amendment of 1966 as the election petitions were to be tried by the High Court, s. 87 of the Act which is based on s. 90 of the Act of 1951 was considered sufficient to contain the entire procedure to be adopted by the High Court in trying the election petitions which were to be in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure as far as applicable. Since the High Court is a court of record and a civil court is not, it was not at all necessary for the Parliament to have enacted a separate section like s. 92 of the Act of 1951 and that is why s. 92 was considered to be unnecessary in view of the change of forum and was deleted under the amended Act. From this it cannot be contended that the Parliament intended that the provisions of O. XI of the Code of Civil Procedure 1 should not apply to the election petitions tried by the High Court under the Act. Counsel for the appellant was unable to cite any authority directly in point. On the other hand, the view which we have taken in this case, is amply supported by number of authorities of this Court as well as other High Courts.