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Writ Petition No. 753 of 1964, decided on 8th December 1964.

Ss. 81 & 47 read with Electoral College Rules, 1964, r. 37‑Inspection of documents retained by Returning Officer‑Cannot be refused nor postponed till matter comes up before Election Tribunal‑Inspection of "marked copy of Electoral Rolls"‑Cannot be refused on ground that if seal of cover is opened document would be tampered with.

Zahoorul Haq for Petitioner.

Abdul Kadir Shaikh, A. A.‑G. and Naimuddin for Respondent.

Date of hearing : 8th December 1964.

This is a petition under Article 98 of the Constitution against the Returning Officer of Unit No. 1734, Club Road, Karachi. The only point that requires consideration in this petition is whether the Returning Officer has any authority to refuse to issue copies of the documents mentioned at page 7 of our paper book. The other point that would require consideration is whether the Returning Officer could refuse to give inspection of the documents mentioned in section 81 of the Electoral College Act, 1964. The documents of which the petitioner requires copies are these:‑--

(1) Statement showing the result of the count.

(2) Marked copy of Electoral Rolls.

(3) Tendered votes list.

(4) Challenged votes list.

(5) Ballot paper account.

2. The learned Additional Advocate‑General appears for the Returning Officer. He submitted before us that the Returning Officer has no objection to issue certified copies of documents mentioned at items Nos. 1, 3 and 5 above. He, however, submitted that no copies or inspection can be granted of item No. 2 (marked copy of Electoral Rolls) on the ground that once the seal cover under which the Electoral Rolls are kept is opened it is likely to be tampered with. Mr. Zahoorul Haque, the learned Advocate for the petitioner submitted that if there is any objection by the Returning Officer to grant certified copies of the "Marked copy of Electoral Rolls" he may permit the petitioner to inspect the said document. The learned Additional Advocate‑General has objection to that also on the ground that it is likely to be tampered with. In this connection, the learned Additional Advocate‑General relied on section 81 of the Electoral College Act, 1964. It reads as under :‑--

"81. Retention and inspection of documents.‑(1) The Returning Officer shall retain the documents relating to an election sent to him by the Presiding Officer for a period of one year from the date of their receipt.

(2) The documents retained by the Returning Officer under subsection (1) shall be open to public inspection at such time and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed ; and the Returning Officer shall, upon an application made in this behalf and on payment of such fee and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, furnish copies of, or extracts from, those documents."

The submission of the learned Additional Advocate‑General is that the Returning Officer has power to prescribe the time for inspection of the documents. He, therefore, contends that the Returning Officer could fix the time for inspection of the documents when the matter comes up before the Election Tribunal. There is not much force in this contention, in the first place, it would be unreasonable to interpret section 81, reproduced above, that the Returning Officer could fix the time for inspection when the matter came up before the Election Tribunal. This would be postponement of the inspection and not fixing time for inspection. Moreover, the Electoral College Rules, 1964, are very clear on this issue. In this connection reference may be made to Rule 37, which reads as under:‑--

"37. Inspection and copies of documents.‑The documents retained by the Returning Officer under subsection (1) of section 81 shall be open for inspection during office hours on payment of the following fees‑

(a) one rupee for inspection of each document ;

(b) one rupee for supply of copies for the first 200 words or less and fifty paisa for every additional 100 words or fraction thereof.

(2) Every application for inspection of documents or supply of copies shall be accompanied by Court‑fees stamps of the requisite value."

The above rule does not leave any room for argument that the Returning Officer cannot postpone the inspection of the documents in his possession, under section 81 of the Electoral College Act, 1964, to the time when the matter comes up before the Election Tribunal.

3. The apprehension on the part of the Returning Officer that the "marked copy of Electoral Rolls may be tampered with has not much force. This can be easily avoided by giving inspection in the presence of the successful candidate and before some responsible officer, who can see that the document is not tampered with. With these observations we would direct the Returning Officer to permit the petitioner to have the inspection of the documents in accordance with rule 37 of the Electoral College Rules, 1964 reproduced above.

K.B.A. Petition accepted.

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