India News | HC Dismisses Plea Challenging Election of Uttar Pradesh Minister Ajit Singh Pal

Allahabad, Mar 10 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition challenging the election of Uttar Pradesh minister Ajit Singh Pal from the Sikandra assembly constituency in Kanpur Dehat district in 2017.

BJP nominee Pal's election was challenged by Samajwadi Party candidate Seema Sachan on the grounds of alleged tampering with electronic voting machines (EVMs) and flouting of rules by poll officials.

Dismissing the election petition, Justice D K Singh-I observed, "The counsel for the petitioner has miserably failed in proving as to how the said non-providing of the copy of the required document to polling agents by the presiding officers has resulted in materially affecting the election result of the returned candidate."

"It has also come on record that the margin of defeat is very huge as the winning candidate has won this election by securing 73,325 votes while the petitioner has just secured 61,455 votes and, therefore, it shows difference of more than 10,000 votes," the court further observed.

Sachan's counsel submitted that the poll officials had acted against provisions of the Representation of People Act by not providing required documents to her agents.

Secondly, the election of the winning candidate had been materially affected on account of improper reception of votes in EVMs, the seals of which were found tampered with or broken at the time of counting, Sachan's counsel submitted.

Pal's counsel contended that the plea was devoid of merit and therefore, deserved to be rejected.

Pal is the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology in Uttar Pradesh.

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