Section 79 (b) of Representation of the People Act, 1951 defines a ‘candidate’ as meaning
“a person who has been or claims to have been nominated as a candidate at any election, and any such person shall be deemed to have been a candidate as from the time when, with the election in prospect, he began to hold himself out as a prospective candidate.”
Unless, therefore, a case falls within the latter half of the definition a person becomes a ‘candidate’ under the first part of the definition only when he has been duly nominated as a ‘candidate’ and the furtherance of the prospects of a ‘candidate’s’ election must, therefore, in such a case commence from after that stage. Although evidence was adduced on both sides, there has been no finding so far on questions of fact which may or may not bring the case within the second part of the definition.
In the absence of such a finding, the case must be regarded, for the purpose of the preliminary issue, as governed by the first part of the definition and as such the proposing and seconding by a Government servant cannot be regarded as “assistance for the furtherance of the prospects of the ‘candidate’s’ election.” In this view of the matter also, the judgment of the Election Tribunal cannot be sustained.
Ref: AIR 1954 SC 202 : (1954) SCR 913