Civil Appeal No.188 of 2019
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were ordered to be held in the constituency. Against such decision,
the present appeal has been filed.
4.
The fact that certain properties were not disclosed in
the nomination papers was not denied. The only defence that
was taken was that as these properties have already been
transferred in the names of appellant's brothers, therefore,
the same were not disclosed in nomination form. It is an
admitted position that only in an affidavit it has been
disclosed that the properties have been transferred to her
brothers. At the time of filing of the nomination papers these
properties were admittedly in the name of the appellant and
her spouse in the revenue record. With regard to the legal
objection that section 76A of Representation of the People
Act, 1976 is contrary to the provisions of Article 225 of the
Constitution, the same is misconceived. Article 225 of the
Constitution clearly provides that no election to a House or
Provincial Assembly shall be called in question except by an
election petition presented to such tribunal and in such
manner as may be determined by Act of Parliament. The
Representation of the People Act, 1976 is an Act of the
Parliament, which has provided the manner in which election
is to be challenged before the Election Tribunal. The scope of
challenge, which covers the acts of corrupt and illegal
practices committed by or on behalf of the returned
candidates in the conduct of the elections, is mentioned in
Section 68 of Representation of the People Act, 1976 whereas
Section 76A grants suo motu powers to the Election Tribunal
to declare election of a returned candidate void on certain
grounds which include non-disclosure or incorrect disclosure
of assets of the candidate or his spouse or his dependents.
Under section 76A such disclosure can come from any source
before the Election Tribunal, which in the present case came
from respondent No. 1. The procedure adopted by the
respondent No.1 and entertained by the Election Tribunal in
an election petition being very much within the confines of
Article 225 of the Constitution, it cannot be said to be
unconstitutional Article 225 clearly provides that the forum to
challenge the election to a House or Provincial Assembly is
the Election Tribunal and the manner in which such
challenge is to be made is to be determined by the
Parliament and for the purposes of' the present proceedings,
the manner is provided in section 76A of the Representation
of the People Act, 1976.”
27.
In the case of Khaleefa Muhammad Munawar Butt
v. Hafiz Muhammad Jamil Nasir (2008 SCMR 504), this
Court refused to interfere in a case where the learned High
Court had disqualified a candidate for failure to declare the
amount received by him as part payment of the sale
consideration of his property in pursuance of an agreement
holding that till such time that the sale had been completed
he continued to own the property and was under a legal
obligation to disclose the same as a part of his assets.
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