12. Subject to the provisions of section 18, the election of a candidate as President or Vice-President shall be avoided by his conviction for any corrupt or illegal practice.
13.-(1) All questions which may arise as to the rights of any person to be or remain elected to the office of President or Vice-President shall be referred to and determined by the Supreme Court on an election petition presented by the Attorney-General or by any person entitled under section 16 to present an election petition and in accordance with the procedure laid down in this Part for the trial of an election petition and the
decision of the Election Judge on any such election petition shall be final for all intents and purposes.
(2) The Election Judge on the hearing of an election petition under this section shall have power-
(a) to make a declaration as to the right of any person to be or remain elected to the office of President or Vice-President or as to whether any other person was duly elected to such office;
(b) if any person has no right to be or remain elected to such office grant an injunction restraining such person from acting in such office.
(3) A decision of the Election Judge under this section shall become operative as from the date of its delivery.
(4) At the conclusion of the trial of an election petition the Election Judge shall determine whether the person whose return or election is complained of, or any other and what person, was duly returned or elected, or whether the election was void, and shall certify such determination to the Governor who shall publish the same by notice in the Gazette and the return of the person concerned shall be confirmed or altered, or the Governor shall order the holding of another election, as the case may require, in accordance with such certificate.
14. On the trial of an election petition the Election Judge shall have all the powers vested in the Supreme Court in the exercise of its original jurisdiction.
15. Subject to the provisions of section 18, the election as a whole, or the election of any candidate, may be declared to be void on an election petition on any of the following grounds, which shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Election Judge, namely:-
(a) that by reason of general bribery, general treating, general undue influence, or other misconduct or circumstances, whether similar to those before enumerated or not, the majority of electors were or may have been prevented from electing the candidate whom they preferred;
(b) that there was non-compliance with the provisions of the principal Law, if it appears that the election was not conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in such provisions and that such non-compliance affected the result of the election;
(c) that a corrupt practice or illegal practice was committed in connection with the election by the candidate or with his knowledge or consent;
(d) that the candidate was at the time of his election a person disqualified for election; or
(e) that an objection to any nomination papers should not have been allowed, or a declaration of the invalidity of any nomination papers should not have been made, under section 13 of the principal Law.
16. An election petition may be presented to the Supreme Court by the Attorney-General or any one or more of the following persons, namely-
(a) some person who voted or had a right to vote at the election to which the election petition relates;
(b) some person claiming to have had a right to be returned or elected at such election;
(c) some person alleging himself to have been a candidate at such election.
17. All or any of the following reliefs to which the petitioner may be entitled may be claimed in an election petition,namely-
(a) a declaration that the election is void;
(b) a declaration that the return of the person elected was void;
(c) a declaration that any candidate was duly elected and ought to have been returned;
(d) where election is claimed for an unsuccessful candidate on the ground that he had a majority of lawful votes, a scrutiny.
18. Where, upon the trial of an election petition respecting an election, or upon petition to the Supreme Court by a candidate, the Election Judge, or a Judge of the Supreme Court, reports that a candidate at such election has been guilty by himself or his agents of the offence of treating or undue influence or of any illegal practice in reference to such election, and the Election Judge or Judge further reports, after giving the Attorney-General an opportunity of being heard, that the candidate has proved to the Election Judge or Judge-
(a) that no corrupt or illegal practice was committed at such election by the candidate and the offences mentioned in the said report were committed by other persons contrary to the orders and without the sanction or connivance of such candidate, and that such candidate took all reasonable means for preventing the commission of corrupt and illegal practices at such election; or
(b) that the offences mentioned in the said report were of a trivial, unimportant and limited character; or
(c) that the offences mentioned in the said report arose from inadvertence or from accidental miscalculation or from some other reasonable cause, and in any case did not arise from any want of good faith on the part of the candidate,
then the election of such candidate shall not, by reason of the offences mentioned in such report, be void, nor shall the candidate be subject to any incapacity of being registered as an elector or voting under this or any other Law.
19.-(1) At the conclusion of a trial of an election petition the Election Judge shall, subject to the provisions of section 18, report in writing to the Governor-
(a) whether any corrupt or illegal practice has or has not been proved to have been committed by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at the election, or by any agent of his, and the nature of such corrupt and illegal practice, if any; and
(b) the names and descriptions of all persons, if any, who have been proved at such trial to have been guilty of any corrupt or illegal practice.
(2) Before any person, not being a party to an election petition, nor a candidate on behalf of whom election is claimed by an election petition, is reported by an Election
Judge under this section, the Election Judge shall give such person an opportunity of being heard and of giving and calling evidence to show why he should not be so reported.
(3) When an Election Judge reports that a corrupt or illegal practice has been committed by any person, that person shall, save as provided in section 18, be subject to the same incapacities as if at the date of the said report he had been convicted of that practice, and a person shall likewise be subject to the same incapacities if he was a candidate at the election and the Election Judge reports that such corrupt or illegal practice was committed with his knowledge and consent by any agent of his.
(4) The Governor shall cause a copy of such report to be published in the Gazette, and it shall be the duty of the appropriate Registrar appointed under the provisions of the Registration of Electors Law, 1959, forthwith to peruse the report and forthwith to delete from the Register of electors the name of every person appearing from the report to be incapable of voting at an election.
20. Every election petition shall be presented within one month of the date of publication of the result of the election in the Gazette.
21. No elector who has voted at any election shall, at the hearing of any election petition or other petition, be required to state for whom he has voted.
22.-(1) On a scrutiny at the trial of an election petition the following votes only shall be struck off, namely-
(a) the vote of any person whose vote was procured by bribery, treating or undue influence;
(b) the vote of any person who committed or procured the commission of personation at the election;
(c) the vote of any person proved to have voted twice at such election;
(d) the vote of any person, who, by reason of a conviction or report of a corrupt or illegal practice, was incapable of voting at the election;
(e) votes gives for a disqualified candidate by any person knowing that the candidate was disqualified or the facts causing the disqualification, or after sufficient public notice of the disqualification, or when the disqualification or the facts causing it were notorious.
(2) The vote of an elector shall not, except in the case specified in paragraph (d) of sub-section (1) of this section, be strucks off at a scrutiny by reason only of the elector not having been, or not being qualified to have his name entered on the Register of electors.
23. The Governor may, with the advice and assistance of the Chief Justice, make Rules of Court to be published in the Gazette, for regulating the practice and procedure to be followed on any election petition or any petition to the Supreme Court under section 18:
Provided that until such Rules are made the provisions of the Municipal Corporations (Election Petitions) Rules shall apply mutatis mutandis to any petition under this Part.