"implication", where there is such a species of liability in law comparable to a
criminal liability is to be fastened upon an individual the prosecutor is to be
expected, as a part of an elementary duty to give fair notice and a fair
opportunity to meet what the individual has really to be made liable for
either because of some act or omission of the individual concerned or even
more so for that of an agent or another person for which there may be some
sort of vicarious liability from facts showing consent or agency to give full
particulars of circumstances from which such implications or vicarious
liabilities may arise I do not find that this was done here.
406. The law must lay done a duty to prevent by taking some steps which
are not taken before a person is held liable for an omission. And there is a
difference between omission to prevent the doing of something and actual
consent to the doing of it. I do not find in the petition any case of a liability
from omissions to do something set up obviously because the law does not
impose upon the candidate the duty to prevent the giving of voluntary
assistance by others whether officials or not Nor is there anywhere in the
petition a case of procurement by consenting to aid obtained through others.
It has to be remembered that on the language of Section 123 (7) a liability is
not created by merely not rejecting voluntarily given aid. The candidate may
not often be aware of the voluntarily given assistance so as to be able to reject
it. A case of consent which can be legally set up is only one of consenting to
active obtaining or procurement by an agent or by some other person who
becomes for the purposes of the specific aid given and consented to ordinarily
prior to obtaining it as good as an agent employed by the candidate.
407. On the terms of Section 123 (7) the following three types of cases of
actual obtaining of assistance as distinguished from abetment or attempting
to obtain it can be legally set up either exclusively or alternatively against a
candidate; firstly a direct obtaining of it by the act of the candidate himself;
secondly, an indirect or vicarious procurement of it by the acts of a duly
constituted agent; and thirdly, an indirect or vicarious procurement of it by
the acts of a person who though not a duly constituted agent, becomes
constructively an agent for the purpose of some particular aid obtained
because it was assented to by the candidate at a time which must ordinarily
be before the aid is given, so that the person through whom assistance is
obtained is a constructive agent for this particular aid at the time when it is
given. The term procurement should strictly speaking apply only in the last
two types of cases. A reference to Section 100 (1) (b) further emphasises the
position that a corrupt practice for which the High Court is to declare an
election void must have been committed either "by a returned candidate or
his election agent or by any other person with the consent of the returned
candidate or his election agent". A case falling under Section 100 (1) (d) (ii) of
"a corrupt practice committed in the interest of a candidate by an agent
other than his election agent" is very different and postulates : firstly a
corrupt practice which can be committed only by an agent; and secondly, the
existence of such an agent. A case falling under Section 100 (1) (d) requires
also proof of the further fact that the result of the election was materially
affected by the corrupt practice.
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