New Delhi, Apr 30 (PTI): The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea challenging the election of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.
Justice Amit Bansal said as the election was held in Bihar, the high court did not have the power to adjudicate the election petition.
“Accordingly, the election petition is dismissed on the ground of lack of territorial jurisdiction,” the court held.
The court, however, allowed the petitioner to avail other legal remedies and said, “The petitioner shall be free to take remedies as available in law.” The petitioner claimed to be a survivor of sexual assault, which was committed at the “insistence” of Prince Raj and his associates including his cousin Paswan, who did not disclose this “criminal antecedent” at the time of filing his nomination for the polls.
Filing a false affidavit or concealing any information in the affidavit in the respect of criminal cases violates Section 125A of the Representation Of People Act and is punishable with six-month imprisonment, she argued.
Advocate Sidhant Kumar, counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI), said the election petition was not maintainable in Delhi in terms of the Representation of People Act as the election was held in Bihar.
The counsel for ECI and the Centre said the election petition had to be filed before the appropriate high court by a petitioner who was neither a voter nor a poll contestant from the constituency.
It was Representation of People Act’s mandate that any election petition which did not fulfil these criteria ought to be dismissed, they added.
“Reading of the provisions make it clear that an election petition challenging an election can only be filed in high court within which the election is conducted,” the court observed.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
