SHRI V. V. GIRI versus DIPPALA SURI DORA AND OTHERS

Citation: [1960] 1 S.C.R. 426 · Decided: 20-05-1959 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: BHUVNESHWAR PRASAD SINHA · Disposal: Dismissed

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

1959 
426 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1960(1}] 
SHRI V. V. GIRI 
v. 
DIPPALA SURI DORA AND OTHERS 
(B. P. SINHA, JAFER IMAM, J. L. KAPUR, 
P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR and K. N. WANCHOO, JJ.) 
Election-Double member constituency-Reserved seat-Sched-
uled Tribe candidate for reserved seat, if can be declared elected to 
general seat--Provisions permitting sud• course, whether 11ltra vires 
-Hindu Law-Member of Scheduled Tribo or Caste-Whcncan 
attain higher caste--Representation of the People Act, I95I (43 of 
I95I), s. 54(4)-Delimitation Commission Act, z952 (BI of z952). s. 8. 
In a double member Parliamentary constituency one seat 
was reserved for the scheduled tribes and the other was general. 
Four persons filed their nominations for the election, Gr and G 2 
for the general seat and Sr and Sz for the reserved seat. At 
the polls the number of votes received by the candidates were 
in the following order: Sr, Sz, G1 and Gz. In accordance with 
the provisions of s. 54(4) of the Representation of the People Act, 
1951, Sr was declared elected to the reserved seat and S2, who 
had received the largest number of votes out of the remaining 
candidates, was declared elected to the general seat. Gr filed 
an election petition for a declaration that the election of S2 was 
void and for a farther declaration that he had himself been duly 
elected to the general seat. The petition was based on three 
grounds, viz., (i) that upon a proper. interpretation of s. 54(4) a 
candidate who had filed his nomination for the reserved seat 
could not be declared elected to the general seat; (ii) that if the 
interpretation be otherwise then s. 54(4) was 11/tra vires; and 
(iii) that S2 had ceased to be a member of ··a scheduled tribe at 
the relevant time and his nomination was improperly accepted. 
Held,. (Kapur, J., dissenting) that, Sz was properly and 
validly declared elected. 
The provisions of the Constitution and 
of the Act show that the election in a double member constitu-
ency was held for the whole constituency and not for the seats 
and a candidate who had filed nomination as a member of the 
scheduled tribes was entitled to contest for both the seats. On 
a fair and reasonable construction of s. 54(4) of the Act there 
could be no doubt that in a case like the present, after S1 was 
declared duly elected to the reserved seat, the votes secured by 
the remaining three candidates had to be considered before de-
claring the election for the general seat. A member of the 
scheduled tribe or caste did not forego his right to seek elec-
tion to the general seat merely because he availed himself of the 
additional concession of standing for the reserved seat by making 
the prescribed declaration for that purpose. It was not neces-
sary for him to file two nomination papers for the two seats. 
Section 54(4) of the Act did not offend Art. 14 or Art. 330 of 
the Constitution and waii not uncon•titutional. 
S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
427 
Held, further, that the appellant had failed to establish that 
z959 
S2 had ceased to be a member of the scheduled tribe and had 
become a Kshatriya. Whatever may have been the origin of 
v. V. Gfri 
Hindu castes ,and tribes in ancient times, gradually castes came to 
"· 
be based on birth alone. A person who belonged by birth to a Dippala Suri Dora 
depressed caste or tribe wouid find it very .difficult, if not impos-
and Others 
sible, to attain the status of a higher caste by virtue of his volition, 
education, culture and status. The caste status of a person had to 
be determinedin the light of the recognition received by him from 
the members of the caste into which he sought an entry ; unilateral 
acts of such a person asserting a higher status were not enough to 
establish the higher status. It is to be hoped that this position 
will change, and in course of time the cherished ideal of castless 
society truly b.ascd on social equality will be attained under the 
powerful impact of the doctrine of social justice and equality pro-
claimed by the Constitution and sought to be implemented by the 
relevant statutes and as a result of the spread of secular education 
and the growth of a rational outlook and of proper sense of social 
values ; but at present it would be unrealistic and utopian to ignore 
the difficulties which a member of the depressed tribe or ai.ste 
has to face in claiming a higher status amongst his co-religionists. 
Per Kapur, J.-The election of S2 to the general seat was not 
val

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