The BJP candidate for The Nilgiris Lok Sabha seat S. Gurumurthy, whose nomination was rejected on Monday, has moved the Madras High court on Tuesday challenging the Returning Officer’s rejection of his papers.
In the petition, S. Gurumurthy said he filed his nomination papers on April 3 and also the second set of papers the next day.
He should have submitted the Forms A and B before the stipulated time on April 5. He had authorised one Varadarajan, his agent, to submit the forms to the Returning Officer (RO.) As his car broke down, he submitted the forms at 6 p.m. on April 5.
While accepting them, the RO said there was a legal impediment in doing so. However, he did not reject or refuse the papers but on April 7 his nomination was rejected for not submitting Forms A and B on time.
The petitioner said the rejection was unjustified and arbitrary.
The right to contest elections on a party symbol was a substantive right and the procedure and time limit prescribed were only meant to subserve the right, he said.
Mr. Gurumurthy prayed to the court to quash the impugned order and further direct the RO to include his name in the list of candidates for the constituency.
