channel or cover for expenses incurred by the candidate himself. This
explains the exclusion of expenses for "general party propaganda" from those
for which the candidate is accountable and liable. Such expenses could be, it
was held, properly incurred by the party itself, irrespective of the source from
which the party obtained funds for carrying it on. What is declared to be
expense incurred by the candidate is that expense which his party may incur
either as an express or implied agent of the candidate and that only.
493. The difficulty which faces the election petitioner at the outset in
taking up a case of implied authorisation, on the strength of anything
observed or decided by this Court in Kanwarlal Gupta's case (AIR 1975 SC
308) (supra) is that no such case was set up here. The petition does not say
that the local Congres (R) Party was really an express or implied agent of the
original respondent or that it had acted in a manner from which it could be
inferred that the funds were really being supplied by the original respondent
and were merely being spent by the party or its workers for the election
under consideration. No facts or circumstances were at all indicated either in
the petition or in evidence from which such inferences were possible. On the
other hand what is sought to be pointed out now in the case before us is that
a sum of Rs. 70,000/- was shown to have been received from some undisclosed
sources by Shri Dal Bahadur Singh, the President of the District Congress
Committee at Rae Bareily, and that a large part of it was shown, from entries
in the bank account of the President of this Committee, to have been
disbursed during or soon after the election. The responsibility of the District
Congress Committee was, however, to carry on propaganda and supply
information in 3 Parliamentary Constituencies. Neither party summoned
Shri Dal Bahadur Singh to give evidence so that it could not be proved what
proportion of any of this sum of Rs. 70,000/- was spent and in what work and
for which of the 3 Parliamentary constituencies. All that was alleged, in
paragraph 13 of the petition, is that the "expenditure incurred by the
respondent No. 1, Smt. Indira Nehru Gandhi and/or her election agent Shri
Yashpal Kapur was much more than Rs. 35,000/- which was the permissible
amount". After that particulars of 11 items were given, out of which the first
was hiring of 32 vehicles whose numbers are mentioned. There is no mention
whatsoever in this list of any sum paid either by the original respondent or
by anyone else on her behalf to Shri Dal Bahadur Singh or of any expense
incurred on behalf of the original respondent by this gentleman. The principle
that no amount of evidence can be looked into on a case not set up is
sufficient to dispose of this evidence of a cheque of Rs. 70,000/- received by
Shri Dal Bahadur Singh.
494. It is true that the case set up is that the prescribed limit of
expenditure was exceeded and the case is so stated that items beyond the list
could conceivably be added. Nevertheless, unless and until there is a plea
that whatever was spent by the Congress (R) Party either as an express or
implied agent of the original respondent, this loop-hole left in the petition
would not suffice. Section 83 (1) (b) of the Act contains the mandatory
provisions that the petition "shall set forth full particulars of any corrupt
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