Election disputes confined to pleadings: no enquiry into unpleaded tendered votes or fishing evidence allowed.

Election disputes must be confined to the pleadings and framed issues, and a party cannot seek evidence or document summons on matters never pleaded. Where the petition and issues were limited to six tendered votes, the court could not expand the enquiry to additional tendered votes absent material facts and full particulars. A recount or similar direction requires a prima facie case supported by pleaded material; a roving or fishing inquiry is impermissible. The narrow exception allowing evidence despite imperfect issues does not apply when the controversy itself was never put in issue. The refusal to consider the additional tendered votes was therefore upheld.

---

---

Issues: Whether, in an election petition limited by the pleadings and framed issues to six tendered votes, the court could permit summoning of documents and examination of the remaining tendered votes not pleaded or put in issue, and whether evidence could be led beyond the pleadings and issues.

Analysis: Election disputes are statutory proceedings and must be tried strictly within the four corners of the statute. The pleadings in the petition and written statement referred only to six tendered votes, and the issues framed by the High Court were correspondingly confined to those votes. The court cannot frame an issue or permit evidence on a matter for which no material pleading exists, and a party cannot travel beyond its pleadings to seek a wider enquiry. In election matters, a recount or similar direction requires a prima facie case supported by material facts and full particulars; a roving or fishing enquiry is impermissible. The exceptional rule that evidence may sometimes be looked into despite imperfect issues does not apply where the controversy itself was never pleaded. The earlier decision on tendered votes was distinguishable because it involved a different factual and procedural setting.

Conclusion: The request to summon and consider the additional tendered votes was not permissible, and the High Court's refusal to do so was upheld.

---