False statement and innuendo in election law require strict proof before corrupt practice can be established.

A false statement qualifies as corrupt practice under Section 123(4) only if it is a statement of fact relating to the candidate's personal character or conduct, and it must be strictly proved like a criminal charge. The pamphlet referred to a member of the candidate's personal staff who was alleged to have attempted murder and to be absconding, but it did not expressly or by necessary implication impute that conduct to the candidate. Read as a whole, it did not make a false accusation against the candidate, and the plea of innuendo failed because the necessary extrinsic facts were neither clearly pleaded nor proved. The election could not therefore be invalidated on that basis.

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Issues: Whether the impugned pamphlet contained a false statement of fact relating to the personal character or conduct of a candidate so as to amount to corrupt practice under Section 123(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and justify invalidation of the election.

Analysis: The statement complained of referred to a member of the candidate's personal staff who was alleged to have attempted murder and to be absconding. The statement was not made against the candidate himself, and it did not expressly or by necessary implication allege that the candidate had harboured the person or was otherwise involved in the alleged offence. In an election petition, a charge of corrupt practice must be strictly proved, like a criminal charge, and cannot rest on conjecture or on one possible inference among several. A reading of the pamphlet as a whole did not disclose a false imputation against the candidate's personal character or conduct. The plea of innuendo also failed because the necessary extrinsic facts were not clearly pleaded and proved.

Conclusion: The pamphlet did not establish a corrupt practice under Section 123(4), and the election could not be declared void on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: For Section 123(4), the false statement must be one of fact relating to the personal character or conduct of the candidate, and corrupt practice by innuendo must be specifically pleaded and strictly proved beyond reasonable doubt.

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