The scrutiny process of the nomination of candidates for the Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha seat was put on hold till May 2 by the returning officer with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Narinder Singh Shergill challenging his disqualification, hours after the Punjab and Haryana high court intervened in the matter.

Earlier in the day, acting on Shergill’s petition, the high court division bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary and Justice Sudhir Mittal directed the authorities concerned to scrutinise the nomination papers of the AAP leader provisionally. The court also asked the counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI) to verify the “factual position” in view of the submissions made by the AAP candidate.

Shergill contested the assembly election from Mohali in 2017. Due to alleged delay in submitting account of election poll expenses to the election office, the EC disqualified him from contesting any poll from June 7, 2018, to June 7, 2021. Shergill filed an appeal against the move with the ECI on March 29 this year. The appeal was heard by the deputy election commissioner on April 25 and was dismissed.

Shergill had challenged the same in the high court besides the rejection of his candidature for the Lok Sabha polls.

He told the court that accounts for the assembly polls were submitted to the district election officer (DEO) and were duly scrutinized. The DEO had agreed with the amount shown by the candidate against all items of expenditure as required, he said.

He filed nomination on April 29 and the scrutiny was to take place on April 30. However, he was intimated orally that his candidature was rejected. He got a formal communication on Tuesday morning. His counsel had argued that there is no fault of Shergill and it cannot be a case that he did not submit accounts.

The order was passed without verifying the documents and without application of mind, the court was told.

First Published: May 01, 2019 12:26 IST