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HC reserves order on Congress MLA’s petition

Correspondent

CUTTACK: The High Court on Wednesday reserved its ruling after completing the hearing on a petition filed by Congress MLA Nimai Charan Sarkar whose election to the Assembly from Malkangiri constituency was declared “void”.

Justice A S Naidu had annulled the elections of Mr. Sarkar on June 23 on the ground that the election code of conduct was violated while there were many discrepancies in the election process. The Congress candidate had won the 2004 elections by a margin of only 253 votes defeating his nearest rival Arabinda Dhali who contested the elections as a BJP candidate.

Challenging the decision of the HC, Mr. Sarkar had moved the court just four days after the significant ruling.

He had urged the HC to put a stay on the June 23 ruling of the HC. The court however, after taking cognizance of Mr. Sarkar’s petition had asked Dhali, a former minister and now the national general secretary of Samajwadi party to file a counter.

Mr. Dhali in his affidavit had opposed the petition of Mr. Sarakar and urged the court not to issue a stay on the June 23 ruling. Mr. Dhali’s counsel told the court that there were massive irregularities in the poll process held in April 2004.

Senior advocate N C Panigrahy appearing for Mr. Dhali told the court that there were not only discrepancies in the poll process alone but counting of votes was taken up in a slipshod manner.

He said that votes of parliamentary and Assembly elections were not properly separated as a result of which the Assembly votes of in at least three booths were counted as Lok Sabha votes.

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