By IANS
New Delhi : United Progressive Alliance (UPA) presidential nominee Pratibha Patil faces legal hurdles ahead of the July 19 election with the Supreme Court to hear Tuesday a petition seeking cancellation of her nomination, even as a similar plea was made in the Delhi High Court.
A major legal hurdle against Patil's near-certain election as president arose after advocate Manohar Lal Sharma Monday mentioned before a vacation bench of apex court judges Tarun Chatterjee and P.K. Balasubramanyan that he had filed in the court's registry a petition seeking cancellation of Patil's nomination papers.
Sharma told the bench that his petition raised significant legal and constitutional questions on whether a person declared to be an "undischarged insolvent" for not clearing a debt to the public exchequer and others was eligible to be elected president.
After hearing Sharma, the bench decided to take up the petition for hearing Tuesday.
Sharma in his petition alleged that the UPA presidential nominee, who also enjoys the support of the Left parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party, was an "undischarged insolvent" and owed Rs.177 million to the public exchequer.
He said that as per constitutional provisions, a person could not be elected the country's president unless he or she was qualified to run for parliament.
According to another constitutional provision, an undischarged insolvent owing a debt to the public exchequer could not be elected to parliament, Sharma maintained in his petition.
The petition said that Patil owed Rs.177 million to the exchequer in her capacity as founder president and chairperson of the Sant Muktai Co-operative Sugar Factory at Jalgaon in Maharashtra that was set up in 1973.
The factory was granted a loan by the Mumbai District Co-Operative Bank on Patil's guarantee as the company's president. Her brother now runs the factory, Sharma said.
The Mumbai bank had issued Patil a notice in 1994 for recovering the loan and in 1996 she had stepped down as chairperson. The loan has not been repaid till date, the petitioner said.
Sharma said that a month ago, the bank declared the sugar factory a defaulter and ordered it sealed since repeated notices by the bank to Patil, while she was the Rajasthan governor, did not get any response.
The petitioner pointed out to the court that the Patil did not disclose all these crucial details in her nomination papers for the presidential election.
He sought the apex court's direction to the Election Commission to cancel her nomination papers for not disclosing all these details.
Meanwhile, NGO Indraprastha People moved the Delhi High Court Monday with a similar plea.
The NGO alleged that Patil, as managing trustee of the Mumbai-based Shram Sadhana Bombay Trust that is controlled by the Maharashtra government, was holding the office of profit and this made her ineligible to contest the president's election.
The trust runs several schools and colleges and Patil was receiving profits from the organisation, the NGO contended.