PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 243
of the nomination of a candidate can be canvassed, discussed and decided upon on an election petition. I have always felt that that is a very harsh procedure. The question of nomination is so to say a preliminary issue and there is no reason why this preliminary issue should be kept hanging, allowing the whole election to take place, forcing people to spend their time and their energy in contesting the election, and subsequently somebody comes up and says that the elected candidate has not been validly nominated. So that, without getting into the merits of the election the practice is followed and the whole thing is disposed of on a preliminary issue. I think it is right that in the matter of election petitions it is desirable to separate this preliminary issue from the other issue as to whether the election is valid on other grounds or not. I have therefore proposed in this Bill that this issue shall be treated as a preliminary issue and the Election Commission shall make some provision for the purpose of constituting some tribunal to which any dispute as regards the validity of nomination will be referred and disposed of finally : so. that when the election takes place no such issue could be raised before the tribunal. I am sure this is a very salutary provision. I am sorry, on the advice of the Election Commissioner, it would not be possible to give effect to this provision at the time of the first election, because he thinks that he has not got sufficient time to think about forming an ad hoc tribunal which may be set up to come and give relief to the contestants. But, as I say, if the Select Committee thinks that this should also be applied then I would have no objection.
Under the conduct of elections I should also like to draw attention to another important matter, namely, method of voting. This Bill provides that some constituencies shall be two member constituencies. That is inevitable in view of the fact that the Constitution provides for the reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. The fact that you have reserved constituencies presupposes at least two-member constituencies.
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava (Punjab) : Why? It is not inevitable.