India News | SC to Hear Plea Against Election of Congress Leader in 2018 Jharkhand RS Poll
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear after four weeks an appeal filed against the verdict of Jharkhand High Court which had dismissed a plea challenging the election of Congress party's Dhiraj Prasad Sahu as a Rajya Sabha member from the state.
New Delhi, Jun 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear after four weeks an appeal filed against the verdict of Jharkhand High Court which had dismissed a plea challenging the election of Congress party's Dhiraj Prasad Sahu as a Rajya Sabha member from the state.
The high court had delivered its judgement on January 17 this year and dismissed the election petition filed by Pradeep Kumar Sonthalia, who was a BJP candidate in 2018 Rajya Sabha poll for two seats from Jharkhand, challenging Sahu's election as a member of the upper house.
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Sonthalia's appeal came up for hearing through video-conferencing before a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy which said it would hear arguments in the matter after four weeks along with a separate plea filed by Sahu.
The BJP leader, in his appeal filed through advocate Misha Rohatgi Mohta, has challenged the part of high court's verdict which had rejected his plea and observed that he had neither made a prayer for recounting of votes nor the Election Commission of India was made a party.
"The high court has gravely erred in denying the relief to the appellant (Sonthalia) on the premises that no prayer has been made for recounting of the votes and Election Commission of India has not been made party in the case," the plea said.
The plea said that a notification was issued by Election Commission (EC) in February 2018 for Rajya Sabha election on two seats in Jharkhand and on March 12, Sonthalia had filed his nomination as a BJP candidate.
Besides Sonthalia, two others -- Samir Oraon from BJP and Dheeraj Prasad Sahu from Congress -- also filed their nominations for the two seats.
It said that on March 23, 2018 the MLAs, including Amit Kumar Mahto from Silli assembly constituency, cast their vote in the poll.
The plea said that Mahto was convicted on March 23, 2018 by a trial court in a criminal case and order on sentence was pronounced on the same day in the second half and he was sentenced to two years.
It said that before declaration of result of Rajya Sabha poll, Sonthalia had made an objection in writing that Mahto was convicted and sentenced for two years so his vote should be declared invalid.
The plea said the returning officer declared Samir Oraon and Dheeraj Prasad Sahu to be elected as Rajya Sabha members from Jharkhand on March 24.
Sonthalia said the returning officer had rejected his objection with regard to validity of Mahto's vote on the ground that he had not received the judgement of conviction till the declaration of result.
He had filed an election petition before the high court on March 28, 2018 and submitted that if Mahto's vote was held to be invalid as a result of his disqualification, then he would have been elected.
The plea said that the secretariat of Jharkhand Legislative Assembly had issued a notification dated April 2, 2018 to the effect that Mahto stands disqualified as an MLA with immediate effect from the date of his conviction on March 23, 2018.
In his appeal, Sonthalia has said that the high court had denied him relief "on the purported technical grounds viz. that no prayer for recounting of votes was made" nor the EC was made a party.
Referring to section 82 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which deals with the issue of parties to the petition, the appeal has said that EC was not required to be made a party in the election petition filed by him.
The plea also referred to other provisions of the 1951 Act and said that and said that the petitioner could not have made a prayer for recounting of votes.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)