The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Cong to take legal action over Surat seat row after LS elections: Singhvi
Cong leader says returning officer can’t judge authenticity of signature
THE CONGRESS will take legal recourse after the Lok Sabha elections in the Surat matter where BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed to the Lower House on April 22, senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in Ahmedabad Sunday.
Surat Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to Surat DEO Saurabh Pardhi claiming the signatures on the document were not theirs. The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress’s substitute candidate in Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
The remaining eight candidates, including one from the BSP, with drew their nomination forms after which the DEO declared BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal elected unopposed from Surat on April 22. On Friday, the Congress suspendedku mb han if rom the party.
Senior advocate Singhvi asserted that a returning officer cannot judge a signature’s authenticity. “Legal recourse in these matters happens after the election. Nobody is talking about winning or losing but we are talking about the principles of it. No returning officer can judge a signature’s authenticity. That is not a summary procedure. The returning officer only has a summary procedure. He cannot decide signatures. Yes, he can decide (if) the man standing in front of me is not Abhishek Singhvi; he is a different man. Those are the summary things he can decide. I wonder how... (he) can decide the authenticity of signatures without sending it to a forensics lab,” Singhvi replied to a question from The Indian Express.
Singhvi said the returning officer forgot about NOTA. “He gave an interview in which he proudly showed the handbook of the EC, which says that when somebody withdraws and nobody is left, then declare the candidate left as elected. But that handbook was made before NOTA was born. NOTA is a candidate. As long as NOTA is alive and kicking on the paper, you cannot,” he stated. He questioned the actions stating that if the BJP was so sure of winning Surat, why they made it a “selection and not an election”.