470. He had also cited another Division Bench decision of the Assam High Court in Biresh Mishra v. Ram Nath Sharma. 17 Ele LR 243 at P. 253 = (AIR 1959 Assam 139 at P. 143) that : "The words 'obtain' or 'procure' or 'abetting or attempting to obtain or procure' any assistance necessarily imply some effort on the part of candidate or his agent. Mere passive receipt of assistance is not contemplated by the Section." 471. I think that the import of such observations was clearly what has been laid down repeatedly by this Court and emphasized by me already - that a means era as well as an actus reus must be shown on the evidence on record, before a candidate can be held guilty of a corrupt practice. In Sheopal Singh v. Ram Pratap, (1965) 1 SCR 175 = (AIR 1965 SC 677) this Court held, in dealing with the allegation of corrupt practice under Section 123(4) of the Act, that mens rea was a necessary ingreadient of the corrupt practice and that the doctine of constructive knowledge was not applicable here. 472. In the case before us the election petitioner alleged a wrongfully "obtained and procured" assistance due to acts of the original respondent as well as her election agent Shri Yashpal Kapur. Hence, proof of actual mens rea as well as actus reus on the part of either the candidate herself or her election agent had to be given. This was not done. The election petition was, therefore, liable to be rejected on this ground alone. 473. If, however, there was any doubt or uncertainty on the matter, the view taken by the lerned Judge had, at any rate directed the attention or Parliament to the need for a clarification of the law which became necessary. It is not possible to object to the motives behind the legislation on this ground. Parliament could certainly set right a defect in law which may have come to its notice as a result of the learned Judge's interpretation of Section 123 (7). The defect may be due to a possible ambiguty. In order to clarify the law. Section 7 of the Act 40 of 1975 inserted a proviso at the end of Section 123(7), which runs as follows : "Provided that where any person, in the service of the Government and belonging to any of the classes aforesaid, in the discharge or purported discharge of his official duty, makes any arrangements or provides any facilities or does any other act or thing, for to or in relation to any candidate or his agent or any other person acting with the consent of the candidate or his election agent, (whether by reason of the office held by the candidate or for any other reason), such arrangements, facilities or act or thing shall not be deemed to be assistance for the furtherance of the prospects of that candidate's election." 474. The learned Counsel for the election petitioner has, very fairly conceeded that, if this amendment, which is retrospective by reason of the operation of Section 10 of Act 40 of 1975, is valid, the decision of the learned Judge on the above mentioned issue No. 3 would not be sustainable. Such a concession, incidentally, means that whatever facilities were given to the