The Hindu : National : Another PIL filed against Pratibha

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Friday, Jul 13, 2007
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Another PIL filed against Pratibha

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The acceptance of Pratibha Patil’s nomination as a candidate of the United Progressive Alliance and the Left for the July 19 Presidential polls has been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, whose earlier public interest litigation (PIL) petition was rejected on July 3, once again filed a petition challenging the Election Commission’s order declining to take any action against Ms. Patil.

Observing that it could not act on mere allegations, the apex court had rejected at the admission stage the earlier petition, seeking cancellation of the nomination of Ms. Patil with liberty to approach the Election Commission for relief.

Plea for early hearing

Mr. Sharma made a mention on Thursday before a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice R.V. Raveendran about the SLP and pleaded for early hearing. The Bench said it would be taken up in the normal course. Mr. Sharma is likely to make a mention again on Friday.

In his SLP, Mr. Sharma said that he had presented a petition to the Commission, which in an order on July 5, said:

“The question whether a person has become insolvent and whether he/she is still an undischarged insolvent has to be decided by the competent insolvency court under the provisions of the Provincial Insolvency Act, 1920, and not by the Commission.”

The Commission is not the appropriate forum. No action is called for on the part of the Commission on your representation.”

Assailing this, Mr. Sharma said the Commission had not applied its mind. It had not called for the records to decide the question of law relating to undischarged insolvent within the ambit of Article 102 (1-c) of the Constitution. He sought quashing of the Commission’s order and an interim stay of its operation.

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