Wrongdoings in poll? Face trial, SC tells Sidhu
Cricketer-turned-politician on a sticky wicket
The Supreme Court on Wednesday told Awaaz-ePunjab convenor and former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu to face trial for alleged electoral malpractices in the 2009 general elections. He had won from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency.
A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and A.M. Sapre, disposing of his appeal, said the Punjab and Haryana high court will decide the election petition on allegations of excess spending by Mr Sidhu on advertisements and facilitating transfer of a gazetted officer in Punjab, who allegedly helped him in winning the election.
The proceedings in the high court at the instance of the defeated Congress candidate, Om Prakash Soni, will only be an academic exercise. The bench, however, absolved Mr Sidhu of charges of excess spending for public meetings on the ground that Mr Soni had not given adequate material to substantiate the charges, though he backed the allegations of excess spending for advertisements. The bench made it clear that it would not go into allegations of Mr Soni that the returning officer did not entertain his complaint of irregularities in counting of votes, as the Lok Sabha stood dissolved for that particular period and no useful purpose would be served by dealing with the allegations now. It was the case of Mr Soni that for media ads alone, he incurred `32,88,845, which is in excess of the total prescribed limit of `25 lakh.