HC dismisses petition against Naba’s election

CUTTACK:The Orissa High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by former Speaker of Odisha Assembly Kishore Mohanty to declare the election of Congress MLA Naba Kishore Das from Jharsuguda constituency in 2014 polls as null and void.

 The High Court rejected the petition saying that it had ‘no cause of action’. Mohanty had stated in his petition that as the BJP candidate Anand Pradhan did not have his name in the voters’ list, his nomination papers should have been rejected as per Section 36 of Representation of Peoples’ Act, 1951. As his nomination paper was not rejected and he was allowed to contest the election, the result from the constituency was affected and it should be declared ‘null and void’.

The petition was heard in the court of Justice SK Mishra.Mohanty had stated in his petition that as the BJP candidate polled more than 21,000 votes, the votes would have gone in his favour had Pradhan’s nomination paper been rejected. In such a scenario, the Congress candidate would have been defeated, Mohanty had argued and prayed for declaring Das’s election as invalid.

Das had filed a petition seeking rejection of Mohanty’s petition as per Civil Procedure Code Order 7 and Rule 11 stating that the BJD candidate’s aruguments do not have any truth and election result was not influenced because of reasons cited in his petition.

On the other hand, the petition filed by Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati seeking rejection of election petition filed by BJD candidate Rabi Narayan Nanda against his victory from the Jeypore Assembly constituency in 2014 polls was dismissed by the High Court.