Material facts in election petitions alleging corrupt practice must be pleaded fully; vague allegations do not disclose a cause of action.

An election petition alleging corrupt practice must plead concise material facts and full particulars, including the essential ingredients of the charge; absence of material facts is fatal, while some defects in particulars may be curable. Applying that pleading standard, allegations concerning bore wells and ambulances were treated as vague and incomplete because they omitted essential averments on consent, knowledge, deployment, beneficiaries, dates, places, and the manner of inducement. On the pleadings as framed, no complete cause of action was disclosed, and the petition was liable to be rejected at the threshold for want of material facts.

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Issues: Whether the election petition disclosed the necessary material facts and cause of action to sustain allegations of corrupt practice and, if not, whether it was liable to be dismissed at the threshold.

Analysis: The statutory scheme requires an election petition alleging corrupt practice to contain a concise statement of material facts and full particulars, including the names of the parties, date and place of the alleged practice, and the prescribed affidavit. Material facts are the basic, primary facts constituting the ingredients of the charge; their absence is fatal, while defects only in particulars may sometimes be cured later. Applying that test, the allegations regarding bore wells and ambulances were found to be vague and incomplete, lacking essential averments as to consent, knowledge, specific deployment, beneficiaries, dates, places, and the manner in which voters were allegedly induced. On the pleadings as framed, no complete cause of action was made out.

Conclusion: The election petition was liable to be rejected for want of material facts and was correctly dismissed.

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