By IANS,
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday set aside the election of Bharatiya Janata Party municipal councillor Satish Kumar from Majnu Ka Tila seat and ordered the Election Commission to hold fresh poll to the seat.
Justice S. Muralidhar issued the order while rejecting a plea of the Congress candidate from the seat to reverse a lower court’s June 2008 order which held his election void.
At the time of quashing the Congress candidate’s election, the lower court declared Kumar as the winner as he had bagged the second highest number of votes in the 2007 poll.
Justice Muralidhar added: “Kumar could not be termed as the winner in the election in the given circumstances because of the declaration of an election as void did not automatically result in the declaration of the challenger as elected as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act”.
Justice S. Muralidhar found no fault in the lower court’s verdict that set aside Congress candidate Vikas’s elecion from Majnu Ka Tila seat, but said a candidate who got the second highest number of votes could not be declared as the winning candidate in democracy.
“In a multi-cornered contest like the present one, this obviously is not a simple exercise. There has to be evidence to show that if the elected candidate is out of the fray as on the date of the poll, then the challenger would have obtained majority of the votes,” he said.
The court asked Kumar to stop working as the area councillor with immediate effect and ordered the state Election Commission to start the poll process, considering the seat as vacant.
Vikas contested the poll as a covering candidate for the Congress’ other candidate in March 2007. After he was declared elected, the BJP’s candidate moved a lower court pointing to flaws in Vikas’ nomination papers. His objections were upheld by the lower court.
Justice Muralidhar concurred with the lower court’s findings and noted that Vikas had not given sufficient explanations for flaws relating to his candidature and submission of his nomination papers.
Kumar, being the candidate ending second in the fray, was held to be winner. Kumar subsequently took oath as the councillor June 24, 2008.