Kerala Assembly polls | HC turns down pleas of BJP, AIADMK candidates against rejection of nominations

March 22, 2021 04:13 pm | Updated 05:53 pm IST - KOCHI

The Kerala High Court on March 22 dismissed the pleas by NDA candidates in Thalassery, Guruvayur and Devikulam Assembly constituencies against the rejection of their nomination papers by the respective Returning Officers (ROs).

Justice N. Nagaresh, while dismissing their writ petitions challenging the action of the respective Returning Officers, observed that the court could not interfere with the decisions taken by ROs.

The Election Commission, while taking objection to the pleas of the petitioners, submitted in a statement that any interference by the High Court at this stage would disrupt, stall, and upset the whole election process. In fact, the election had to be concluded as early as possible according to the time schedule and all controversial matters and disputes arising out of the election process should be postponed till after the election so that the election proceedings would not be unduly retarded or protracted. There could not be a two pronged attack: one by invoking the writ jurisdiction of the High Court and another by filing an election petition after the declaration of the elections, the Commission added.

The alleged improper rejection of nomination papers was a ground for declaring void an election of a candidate under section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951. Once the nomination papers of a candidate is rejected, the Act provides only one remedy; i.e. filing of an election petition after the elections were over, the EC pointed out.

The petitions were filed by N. Haridas, BJP candidate in Thalassery Assembly constituency, Nivedida Subramanian, BJP candidate in Guruvayur Assembly constituency and Dhanalakshmi Marimuthu, AIADMK candidate in Devikulam constituency

While the nomination paper of Mr. Haridas was rejected on the ground that Form No. A did not bear the signature of BJP president J.P. Nadda, the nomination paper of Ms. Nivedida was rejected for Form No. B not bearing the signature of the BJP president.

In their petition, the candidates contended that the rejection of their nomination papers was unauthorised and arbitrary. They pointed out that the nomination papers could not be rejected solely on account of minor defects in Form No. A or B as per Rule 4 of the Conduct of Election Rules. It was true that when the nomination papers were submitted, some minor errors were noticed. While Form No. B submitted by the Guruvayur candidate contained the seal of the State Committee BJP, Form No. A had the authorisation issued by the national president in favour of the State president with his specimen signature. Though the significance of the party president was omitted in Form No. B it was provided in Form No. A.

Mr. Haridas pointed out that the only defect noted in Form A was that it did not have the signature of the national president. In fact, the petitioner had submitted revised Form No. A with the signature of the BJP national president. Therefore, the rejection of his nomination was illegal, he contended.

The AIADMK candidate contended that the Returning Officer could allow candidates to correct the mistakes in their nomination papers. In fact, the Election Commission was empowered to order the Returning Officers to make such corrections under Article 324C of the Constitution, she pointed out.

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