Petition challenging Birender, Chandra’s election to RS quashed
RAJYA SABHA POLLS Petition was filed by senior Supreme Court laywer RK Anand , who was supported by INLD and Congress, and had lost the polls
CHANDIGARH:: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday dismissed a petition challenging the election of Union minister Birender Singh and media baron Subhash Chandra to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana in June last year. The petition was filed RK Anand, senior Supreme Court advocate, who was backed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Congress and had lost the polls. He had challenged the election alleging “forgery and fabrication” during voting and sought quashing of the election of Chandra and as well as Birender Singh, held on June 12, 2016.
The order was passed by the high court bench of justice PB Bajanthri, allowing an application of Subhash Chandra, in which he had sought dismissal of the petition. The detailed judgment is awaited. Senior advocate Mohan Jain, who appeared for Chandra, had argued that the allegations raised by Anand were “false, baseless and not sustainable”.
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday dismissed a petition challenging the election of Union minister Birender Singh and media baron Subhash Chandra to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana in June last year.
The petition was filed RK Anand, senior Supreme Court advocate, who was backed by the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Congress and had lost the polls. He had challenged the election alleging “forgery and fabrication” during voting and sought quashing of the election of Chandra and as well as Birender Singh, held on June 12, 2016.
The order was passed by the high court bench of justice PB Bajanthri, allowing an application of Subhash Chandra, in which he had sought dismissal of the petition. The detailed judgment is awaited.
Senior advocate Mohan Jain, who appeared for Chandra, had argued that the allegations raised by Anand were “false, baseless and not sustainable” being against the relevant law. “As per the mandatory provisions of the law under Section 83 (1) of the Representation of People Act, 1951, where the election petitioner alleges any corrupt practice, he is bound to file an affidavit with petition in a prescribed form in support of the allegation of such corrupt practice and also the particulars about same.
But petitioner had failed to file requisite particulars in the present case,” Jain said adding that this led to the dismissal of the petition.
Also Chandra had argued that a prescribed affidavit filed by Anand was not in accordance with the laid down rules for elec- tion petitions, Jain said adding that the Supreme Court has held that the affidavit filed with the election petition is an integral part of the election petition. But in the case in hand, the petitioner had violated the mandatory provisions, it was argued before court.
Anand had argued that the decision of the returning officer (RO) to declare some votes null and void was wrong. He had also made allegations against the RO of “conniving” with the winning candidates.
Birender Singh had got 40 votes in the 90-member House. As 14 votes were declared invalid by the RO due to change of pen and other reasons, he needed only 26 votes to win. His 14 votes got transferred to Subhash Chandra, who had secured only 15 votes, taking his total votes to 29. On the other hand, Anand secured 21 votes.