Law:

Section:

West Pakistan Basic Democracies (Election of Chairman) Rules, 1960, rr. 5(3) & 7 ,- Election of Chairman-Secrecy of ballot-Voter's reference to Presiding Officer for assistance as to how he should mark his ballot paper-Does not constitute violation of secrecy-Nor is secrecy affected if after election person casting vote appears before Controlling Authority, hearing election petition and points out to hint that that particular vote was cast by him. In an election held under the West Pakistan Basic Democracies (Election of Chairman) Rules, 1960, there were two contestants A and B. A vote cast in favour of A was declared invalid on the ground that the cross-mark against his name was cutting the line between the spaces against the name of the two candidates. In election petition the Controlling Authority held inquiry and the person who cast vote appeared and said that he had marked the cross for A according to the instruction of the Presiding Officer. The Controlling Authority on this evidence held that the vote had been wrongly excluded and therefore set aside the election. Before the Supreme Court it was urged that the secrecy of the ballot had been violated in respect of the disputed vote: Held, the voter's reference to the Presiding Officer for assistance as to how he should mark his paper clearly did not constitute violation of secrecy. His appearance before the Controlling officer and the evidence he gave did indeed expose the fact that the disputed vote was cast by him, but this was for a subsequent and collateral purpose, namely, the election petition and did not, in any way, affect the secrecy under which the vote was cast. It may be that it is not in conformity with the scheme of these elections that it should ever be made known which voter cast a particular vote, but the result of the ballot if declared on the basis of votes cast in secrecy cannot be affected by such a subsequent disclosure. JUDGMENT CORNELIUS, C. J.-In an election for Chairman of a Union Council, an equal number of votes (3) was cast in favour of each of the two contestants, viz., the petitioner, Muhammad Asghar Naqvi and the respondent Altaf Hussain. The Presiding Officer held that…

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