The process of filing nominations for the October 16 biennial election to the Rajya Sabha will conclude on Tuesday. It is the first hurdle that candidates, whether nominated by political parties or contesting as independents, must face.
Her appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court, citing the 1952 NP Ponnuswami verdict. In 2002, Baluni’s nomination for the legislative assembly election in what was then Uttaranchal, was first accepted and then rejected on the grounds that he did not file the required documents within the stipulated time. Consequently, Baluni could not contest the polls but instead filed a case in the Supreme Court, which, in 2005, ruled that there was evidence of tampering.
The SC also declared the election, which was won by Surinder Singh Negi of the Congress, as void and ordered a re-poll for the Kotdwar constituency. Because she did not disclose a court summons issued to her, she was nominated to contest the polls for the Upper House from Madhya Pradesh, but the RO rejected her papers. Samajwadi Party’s third nominee Ravidas Mehrotra will also file his nomination, while the other two, Ram Gopal Yadav and Dhanraj Parimal Nathwani, have already filed theirs. The Court had then ruled that once the election process is underway, no court may intervene or interrupt it. The court laid down that an aggrieved candidate cannot appeal a rejection mid-election and must wait until the election concludes. The grounds for rejection can be the candidate not being qualified to be a member of the concerned legislature; failure to give an account of election expenses, clearances, and no-dues certificates; nomination paper not in the prescribed format, and false information, among others. There have, however, been cases where ROs were indicted for wrongful decisions. One such case is that of BJP’s lawmaker Anil Baluni, whose nomination was rejected on false grounds. Baluni challenged the order, citing forensic examination of the nomination papers, but the High Court of Uttaranchal did not accept his plea.
Eight leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party nominated from Uttar Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand, Dinesh Arya, will file their nominations on Tuesday. The party’s candidate from West Bengal, Koel Mallick, filed her nomination on Monday.
