11 challenge HC order on contesting New Delhi seat

NEW DELHI: After their petition to be allowed to contest from the New Delhi Assembly seat was dismissed by a single-judge bench of the Delhi high court, the petitioners have now approached a division bench of the same court.

High court chief justice D N Patel and justice C Hari Shankar issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (EC) and the central government on the petitioners’ claim that their nomination papers were rejected allegedly because of “undue” advantage given to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal who is also contesting from the same seat.

On January 28, the single judge had dismissed the plea saying it was not maintainable and that under the Representation of People Act, only an election petition was permissible that can be filed only after results were declared.

Challenging this order, the 11 petitioners sought an interim relief by a stay on the single judge’s order and also the January 24 list of validly nominated candidates. They also sought direction to the Centre, Election Commission and Chief Election Officer to forthwith inquire into the January 20 incident when their nominations were allegedly rejected.

According to their pleas, petitioners had arrived at the election office at Jamnagar House here early in the morning on January 20 with their duly filled forms and required documents.

However, they were allegedly given tokens which were valid till the next day, since the nominations could not be filed on the same day due to the paucity of time.

However, when they reached the election office the next day, they found that instead of tokens, the names of the applicants were being recorded on a sheet, the petition said, claiming that once chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had arrived there to file his nomination, he was directly taken inside to allegedly facilitate his filing.

The matter will now be heard on February 5.