from the legal aspect his grievance on the merits of his case is misconceived.
He has no vested right under a palpably erroneous judgment which was the
subject matter of the two appeals to this Court. Nevertheless this could only
be demonstrated after we had gone into the merits of the case and rendered
our decision on the issues in accordance with the law in the 1951 Act. Thus
what is involved is the right of the election petitioner to be heard on merits
and the power of this Court to look into the merits of the case in order to
determine whether the election-petitioner's grievances could have any real
legal foundations. I think that this is a basic consideration which must
compel us in the light of the principles laid down by us in Kesavananda
Bharati's case (AIR 1973 SC 1461) (supra) to hold that we must look into his
grievances and determine for ourselves where his case stood on the law
before it was amended. Our jurisdiction at any rate cannot be barred without
creating the impression that what the election petitioner calls "political
justice" is being denied to him.
627. The question which arises now is : Was CI (4) of 329-A read with
clauses (5) and (6) really meant to bar our jurisdiction to consider the
grievances of the petitioner and to decide them or can they be so interpreted
as to preserve this court's jurisdictional?
628. Broadly speaking the election petitioner has two heads of grievance :
firstly that the election of the original respondent is vitiated by corrupt
practices which as I have indicated after considering the case set up by him
and the evidence tendered and the law applicable could not possibly succeed
even under the law as it stood before the amendment, and, secondly, that our
very jurisdiction to go into these grievances is sought to be debarred by
clauses (4), (5) and (6) of Article 329-A (4) with the political object of stifling
opposition and therefore according to the election petitioner we must declare
clause (4) and the connected clauses (5) and (6) of Article 329-A to be invalid.
Although, the 1st set of complaints is based upon the provisions of the Act of
1951 the second set arises because of impugned clauses of the 39th
Amendment. For the second set of grievances, the action complained of is
that of the State itself acting through its law making organs. It is because of
this interest of the Union of India, acting in its law making capacity, that we
have heard the Attorney General and the Solicitor General. Although the
second set of grounds may arise as a result of the 1st set yet they are
different. Our jurisdiction to consider these different grounds of complaint
does not ordinarily arise at all in the exercise of our jurisdiction under
Section 116-A of the Act of 1951. It is for this reason that the election
petitioner had filed a separate Writ Petition in the High Court to challenge
an amendment of the Act. But, we decided to hear arguments on
constitutional issues also without a separate proceeding. The causes of action
arising out of the amendments have become attached if I may so put it to the
appeals under Section 116-A of the Act because we could not, under the law,
hear the appeals unless these obstacles if any, were overcome.
629. Indeed, so for as the original respondent is concerned the effect of Cls
(4), (5) and (6) of Article 329-A would be if we were to hold that they bar our
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