Section 29
Power to except innocent act from being illegal practice, etc.
Where, on application made, it is shown to an Election Judge or to a Judge of the High Court by such evidence as seems to the Judge sufficient—
(a)
that any act or omission of a candidate at any election, or of his election agent or of any other agent or person,
Act 5
would, by reason of being the payment of a sum or the incurring of expense in excess of any maximum amount allowed by this Act, or of being a payment, engagement, employment, or contract in contravention of this Act, or of otherwise being in contravention of any of the provisions of this Act, be, but for this section, an illegal practice; and
(b)
that any such act or omission arose from inadvertence or from accidental miscalculations or from some other reasonable cause of a like nature, and, in any case, did not arise from any want of good faith, and in the circumstances it seems to the Judge, after giving the candidates, the returning officer, and any elector within the constituency or electoral ward an opportunity of being heard, to be just that the candidate in question and the said election and other agent and person, or any of them, should not be subject to any of the consequences under this Act of the said act or omission, the Judge may make an order allowing such act or omission to be an exception from the provisions of this Act which would otherwise make the same an illegal practice, payment, employment, or hiring, and thereupon such candidate, agent or person shall not be subject to any of the consequences under this Act of the said act or omission.
Authorized excuse for non-compliance with provisions as to return and declaration respecting election expenses