Nomination validity under election law depends on attested thumb-marks for illiterate proposers and seconders, not mere technical compliance.
The election law required nomination papers to be completed in the prescribed form and properly subscribed by the candidate, proposer and seconder. For illiterate signatories, a thumb-mark counted as a valid signature only if placed in the prescribed presence and attested by the specified officer, making attestation part of the substance of compliance. Because that attestation had to exist at the time of presentation, the omission could not be treated as a mere technical defect or cured at scrutiny. Nomination papers lacking this requirement were invalid, and the Returning Officer was bound to reject them.
Issues: Whether nomination papers signed by illiterate proposers and seconders without attestation of their thumb-marks were validly subscribed under the election law, and whether the omission could be treated as a mere technical defect under the saving provision for unsubstantial defects.
Analysis: The statutory scheme required a nomination paper to be completed in the prescribed form and subscribed by the candidate, proposer, and seconder. The term "subscribe" had to be read with the Act and the prescribed form, which required signatures, and the Act's interpretative provision and the election rules treated a person unable to write his name as signing only if the mark was placed in the prescribed presence and attested by the specified officer. The requirement of attestation was therefore part of the substance of a valid signature in such cases. The omission was not a curable irregularity at scrutiny, because the relevant satisfaction and attestation had to exist at the time of presentation. The defect was not a mere technicality of unsubstantial character.
Conclusion: The nomination papers were invalid for non-compliance with the statutory requirements, and the Returning Officer was bound to reject them; the challenge to that rejection failed and the appeals succeeded.
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