RECRIMINATORY PETITION

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This article is written by Mrinalini Menon of 1^st year of DES Navalmal Firodia Law College, Pune, an intern under Legal Vidhya

ABSTRACT

Recriminatory petitions are a legal tool used by parties to address allegations against them. In this article, we will explore the history, legal framework and practical implications of these petitions. We will also look at how they can complicate cases and how they can affect judicial efficiency. Finally, we will look at how these petitions can promote transparency and accountability and how they can help parties assert their rights while exposing misconduct by opponents. Recriminatory petitions have been around for a long time and have evolved over time in various legal systems. Here we will look at how they are used in different legal domains, such as family law and election law, as well as how they can be used to address grievances.

This work uses real-life examples and case studies to illustrate the intricacies and nuances of a recriminatory petition. It emphasizes the need to use these petitions wisely, balancing the interests of the parties and preserving the integrity of the system of justice. In summary, this essay provides an in-depth look at recriminatory petitions as they are used in legal proceedings. It highlights the importance of using these petitions as tools for justice, not for obfuscation. The goal of this article is to provide an in-depth understanding of what recriminatory petitions are and how to use them judiciously to achieve the goals of justice and accountability within the legal system.

INTRODUCTION

On exactly 15^th of August, 1947 India was declared and had become a truly independent nation. Up till that time our nation was within the clutches of the British colonial rule or era. And with this independence came the establishment of the world’s largest and one of the most complicated democracies of the world. The major function of this democracy was “free and fair elections”.[1]

Before 15^th of August India was under the British rule and Britishers were the major decision makers of the country. Most of the decisions taken by them were not in favour of the citizens of India or the nation itself. This called for or brought into limelight the need for a system wherein people can choose their leaders in a democratic and unbiased way.

Legislative assemblies in India were fist created by the British government in 1853 through the Charter Act, 1853, the membership of which was increased slowly. After initiation provision of the nomination of members Government of India Act, 1892 mandated the members of the assembly to be elected indirectly. The idea of “direct elections” was introduced for the very first time in 1909. But the backdrop of this system was that the voting rights were extremely limited, which got expanded gradually. India’s founding fathers introduced the concept of “Universal Adult Franchise” for every adult who is above 21 years of age. According to this concept every person who was above the age of 21 was eligible to vote without any discrimination. Later the 61^st Constitutional Amendment Act reduced this age gap to 18 years in 1988. The first elections in India were conducted in 1950-52 and nearly 17 crore voters casted their votes for 489 Lok Sabha seats even after the fact that the total number of eligible voters were 36 crores. The total number of Lok Sabha seats has now increased to 550, but elections are presently being conducted for 543 seats only. The first election was conducted 68 phases between 25^th October 1951 and 21^st February 1952 in which the Indian National Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru won with 44.99% votes and 364 winning seats.

ELECTION LAWS

Election as mentioned briefly earlier is the procedure wherein the people of a country or a nation or in a more broadened sense any group of people elect or choose their representative or leader. The need for a leader or a representative arrived due to the requirement of a single personality who could address the issues and problems faced by the people in a combined manner.

A major question before us is that what if that what if we had a democracy without any elections? And whether it really is possible or not. The entire concept of democracy is built up on the fact that all people should be taken into account and kept together at every major step or decision and that the people’s perspectives should be respected and looked into.

During the earlier times all the people took active participation in any decision-making procedure that was conducted, be it that of a group or a nation as whole. It was a convenient method as there was less population at that time or during the initial times of the human existence. But now with the growing population the implementation of the same procedure would be practically impossible due to many reasons.

The complete procedure of elections in India are completed in a series of steps. The steps of the procedure of elections are as follows:

Election Commission: The election commission is the major body that conducts the election. It is an autonomous as well as a constitutional body that helps majorly in conducting the elections in the Union and States of India. Article 324 of the Indian constitution guarantees or ensures the independent functioning of the Election Commission of India in order to have free and fair elections.
Voter Registration: In order for an election to be conducted one of the major components necessary in that are the voters. It is very important that the voters be registered under the official registration documents of the government. A major problem faced by our country is that a large number of citizens in India are not registered only and the reason behind that is the illiteracy of the citizens. The initiative of linking Adhaar to all the documents taken by our honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi is an encouraging step taken towards solving the above-mentioned problem to a great extent.
Delimitation[2]: The literal meaning of the word is setting or recognising boundaries. India as a whole is made up of many states, union territories and constituencies. Thus, it becomes very important to demarcated these boundaries. The responsibility of delimitation is assigned or given to a higher body and that body is generally known as the Delimitation Commission or the Boundary Commission.
Nomination Of Candidates: Each constituency is nominated by a political party or independent candidate. Candidates must submit nomination papers with a deposit and meet a number of requirements.
Campaigning: It is a very vital part of the election process. This is basically the advertising of a particular party in order to make their offers to the citizens in return to the votes that must be casted to that particular party. There are certain rules and regulations that every political party must abide by during the campaigning process and then violation of which would lead to the disqualification or removal of that particular party.
Election Day: On this day the voters cast their votes to the political parties of their choice. India follows a paper based voting system wherein the voters cast their votes on a paper and put it in a ballot. On that particular day all the polling stations are specifically supervised by the election officials.
Counting of Votes: After the votes have been casted on the election day the votes are counted in order to determine the winning political party.
Declaration of Winners: The candidate who gets the most votes in a poll is declared the winner of the election. In the case of the Lok Sabha election, the candidate who gets the maximum number of votes in their respective constituencies wins the election and becomes the Member of Parliament.
Formation Of Government: The form of government is as follows: Lok Sabha: The party or the coalition that gets the highest number of seats in the Lok Sabha election forms the government and its leader becomes the prime minister. State elections: The party or a coalition that wins the most seats in the state election form the state government and its chief minister becomes the chief minister.
Post-election Analysis: Post-election analysis is a term used to describe a post-election review of the electoral process to identify and resolve any problems or irregularities that occurred during the election.
Term Duration: The term of office of the elected representatives is five years, and then the cycle begins again.

NEED FOR ELECTIONS

The earliest form of democracy appears to have been introduced by Ancient Greece around 508 B.C. The Greeks used a “Negative” electoral system in which men who owned land were asked to vote for their favourite political leader or candidate for the next ten years. The early ballot system was based on ostraka (broken pottery), which is where the modern word ostraka comes from. The candidate with the highest ostraka vote would be the one who was ostracized the following year. If no political leader got more than 6,000 votes, they would all be ostracised. Since there were very few male land owners, no one would have been ostracized even if the distribution of votes had been fairly even. Ostracization was usually reserved for highly popular political leaders.

These are some of the few reasons among the others, there are still many reasons or derivations by a lot of people about why elections became an important part of the society and its decision-making regulations. Many have frequently raised the question or suggested the possibility of another way of electing a leader. There might or would indeed be a lot of other criterions on the basis of which a person can be elected to a certain position like their age, educational qualification etc. but that method would not be a democratic one. While electing a representative there are a lot of choices that have to be made by the citizens or the people who are electing or giving their votes. They will have to choose who will be making laws, rules and regulations for them and who will be forming then government and take major decisions. They can choose the person or the party whose policies will guide the government and law making.

REPRESENTATION OF PEOPLE’S ACT

As mentioned earlier the major motive or the crux of the entire concept of democracy is free and fair elections. In that way people can mindfully elect and choose their own representative in an unbiased manner. In order to ensure this a special body with certain powers has been assigned or created and that special body of authority is known as the Election Commission of India (ECI)[3] which makes sure or ensures that the elections that are to be taken place or have already taken place be conducted in a free and fair manner. And article 324 of the Constitution provides for its establishment.

MEANING OF RECRIMINATORY PETITION[4]

If we look into the etymological derivation of this concept then we get to know that the meaning of the word ‘recriminatory’ is basically something that involves or has the nature of mutual or counter accusations. It is of vital importance that the elections be conducted in a free, fair and unbiased manner and the procedure should be transparent as well as secure at the same time. It is so because there are a number of mistakes or threats that occur or are given during the elections.

Once the elections have been declared the role of the Election Commission ends there. That is the time when the recriminatory petition comes into play. A recriminatory petition, also known as the election petition is basically a legal remedy available for any candidate who has to address their grievances or suggestions after the results are declared. For instance, any malpractice or illegal work of the winning political party is brought into limelight by any other competing parties then that piece of information will be considered valid and will be accepted. Further actions will also be taken against the accused political party. This can be filed not just by the other candidates participating in the elections but also by any person who has casted their vote and feels that any malpractice has been done or happened in an election. Such a person can challenge the result through an election petition submitted to the High court of the state in which the constituency is located. It is mandatory that this petition has to be filed within 45 days from the date of the poll results, after the duration of those 45 days no such petitions would be entertained by the court. Th Representative of the People Act of 1951 suggests that the High court should conclude the trial within 6 months. In the case of Jabar Singh v Genda Lal[5] the appellant had won then election by two votes. At a recounting ordered by the election court in the trial of election petition it was found that 10 ballot papers in favour of the respondent had been improperly rejected and 4 ballot papers in favour of the appellant had been improperly accepted. At this stage the appellant urged before the court that there has been malpractice or mistake in the election process as mentioned above.

This is a very necessary procedure as it will prevent the concentration of power into only a single place and will also keep in check the activities of the party in power.

[1] Election, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Election, last seen on 31/08/2023

[2]Delimitation, Election Commission of India, https://eci.gov.in/delimitation-website/delimitation/#:~:text=Delimitation%20literally%20means%20the%20act,Commission%20or%20a%20Boundary%20Commission., last seen on 31/08/2023.

[3]The Representation of the People Act: Part I, Drishti IAS, https://www.drishtiias.com/to-the-points/Paper2/representation-of-people-s-act-part-i, last seen on 31/08/2023

[4] Central Government Act, Indian kanoon, https://indiankanoon.org/doc/153116676/, last seen on 31/08/2023

[5] Jabar Singh vs Genda Lal on 20 December, 1963; 1964 AIR 1200, 1964 SCR (6) 54