422 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
in the legislature, a special provision was made for Scheduled Castes in the Montague - Chelmsford Reforms. There is a similar provision in the Representation of the People’s Act also.”
…… The petitioner contended that Dr. Deshmukh has conceded the provisions of Section 54 of the Act from the electorate while the Communist candidate, Mr. S. A. Dange, by preaching the nullification of Section 63, had set the law at naught. He charged both the respondents with adopting corrupt practices and unduly influencing the voters.
DISPOSAL OF VOTES
Dr. Ambedkar submitted that the disposal of one of the two votes was not left to the wishes of voters or, for that matter, of candidates. The disposal of the second vote was regulated by Section 79 (d) which, he said, gave the electorate the option to vote or not to vote as voting was not compulsory in India. He raised the following points (1) A voter was free to exercise his electoral rights; (2) He could go to the polling booth and receive both his ballot papers and distribute them; (3) He could use one of them and return the other to the Presiding Officer;
(4) To use one ballot paper and destroy the other was illegal and an offence according to Section 136(e) (f);(5)To cast one ballot paper in the ballot box and take the other with him would be illegal, according to Section 135, and (6) To insert both the ballot papers in one box was also illegal, according to Rule 25 (1) and a violation of the Act.
He stated that Section 100 clearly stated that “an election shall be set aside on the ground of corrupt practices extensively prevailing,” and asked if the Tribunal did not consider the 74,333 votes wasted as the result of the perverse propaganda to be a large figure. “I lost my seat by 13,000 votes. I am not very presumptuous, but out of the 39,000 votes wasted by Mr. Dange, I would certainly have got a large number had it not been for the crucial propaganda of his and that of Dr. Deshmukh,” he said.
“CHAPTER OF MISALLIANCE”
Mr. A. S. R. Chari, counsel for Mr. Dange, described the petitions of Dr. Ambedkar and Socialist leader, Mr. Ashoka Mehta, as the closing chapter of misalliance between the Socialists and the Scheduled Castes Federation. He said the petitioners’ own witness