Jharkhand HC seeks EC reply in Arjun’s LS victory case

Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Thursday directed the Election Commission (EC), the chief electoral officer of the state and the returning officer (RO) of Khunti parliamentary seat to file counter-affidavits separately in connection to the writ petition filed by Congress candidate Kali Charan Munda, seeking recounting of votes for the Khunti Lok Sabha constituency.
When counting for the Khunti Lok Sabha polls was conducted on May 23, Kali Charan lost to BJP’s Arjun Munda, now a Union minister, by a narrow margin. Kali Charan filed a representation to the RO filed soon after the verdict on the counting day for recounting but said it was not disposed of so far.
During the hearing before a single bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad in the case, the government contended that the writ petition was not maintainable.
“We said that as per the principle enshrined in Article 329 of the Constitution, any matter relating to elections can be challenged by filing an election petition and not otherwise,” said lawyer Manoj Tandon, who is part of the lawyers’ team appearing on behalf of the state government.
Lawyer A K Singh, who represented the EC, said, “The court asked us to file a detailed counter-affidavit with notes on maintainability of the petition within two weeks. It would then examine our contentions.”
Advocate general Ajit Kumar has also been asked to assist the court in the matter.