PATNA: The Patna high court on Friday sought reply from the Election Commission of India (ECI) by May 15 that under which law its flying squad had seized Rs26.9 lakh from a wholesale garment shop in Zila Parishad Market at Muzaffarpur on March 26.
A division bench of Justices Jyoti Saran and Anjani Kumar Sharan, while hearing a writ petition filed by M/s Indian Traders, asked ECI to direct its three-member committee headed by deputy development commissioner to give decision on the money seizure within 48 hours.
The petitioner challenged the seizure and pleaded the court to direct the authorities concerned to release the money seized from the shop, alleging that it was in violation of the ECI regulations.
The money was seized by the ECI squad on the plea that it was kept there for misuse during the Lok Sabha elections. The squad had handed over the money to the Income Tax department.
During last hearing on Wednesday, the bench opined that unless there was a due permission to the raiding team, its members had no business to enter anybody’s business premises. The bench had reserved its final opinion on the issue till the source of power for carrying out the exercise gets placed on record by the state government as well as by ECI.
ECI counsel Siddhartha Prasad had sought a fortnight’s time to seek instruction and file a detailed counter affidavit on the provisions of law under which the seizure was made. However, the court directed the ECI to reply by Wednesday when petitioner’s counsel Gautam Kejriwal submitted that steps for registering an FIR must be taken within 24 hours if money was suspected to be used for illegally influencing electors, but no such action was taken yet.
SK Mandal, standing counsel for state government, submitted that action of the flying squad was based on specific input received by the district administration.
A counter affidavit had also been filed by the state government in which it mentioned that the SDM (east) and DSP (town) of Muzaffarpur had received inputs before raiding the shop.
A division bench of Justices Jyoti Saran and Anjani Kumar Sharan, while hearing a writ petition filed by M/s Indian Traders, asked ECI to direct its three-member committee headed by deputy development commissioner to give decision on the money seizure within 48 hours.
The petitioner challenged the seizure and pleaded the court to direct the authorities concerned to release the money seized from the shop, alleging that it was in violation of the ECI regulations.
The money was seized by the ECI squad on the plea that it was kept there for misuse during the Lok Sabha elections. The squad had handed over the money to the Income Tax department.
During last hearing on Wednesday, the bench opined that unless there was a due permission to the raiding team, its members had no business to enter anybody’s business premises. The bench had reserved its final opinion on the issue till the source of power for carrying out the exercise gets placed on record by the state government as well as by ECI.
ECI counsel Siddhartha Prasad had sought a fortnight’s time to seek instruction and file a detailed counter affidavit on the provisions of law under which the seizure was made. However, the court directed the ECI to reply by Wednesday when petitioner’s counsel Gautam Kejriwal submitted that steps for registering an FIR must be taken within 24 hours if money was suspected to be used for illegally influencing electors, but no such action was taken yet.
SK Mandal, standing counsel for state government, submitted that action of the flying squad was based on specific input received by the district administration.
A counter affidavit had also been filed by the state government in which it mentioned that the SDM (east) and DSP (town) of Muzaffarpur had received inputs before raiding the shop.
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