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| Panthers challenge election of Farooq, Shafi Uri to Rajya Sabha | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 6- The Panthers Party today filed an election petition in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu challenging the election of former Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Shafi Uri (both National Conference) who were declared elected by the Returning Officer on February 13 on the basis of securing maximum votes as compared to Altaf Ahmed Bukhari, (PDP) and Ashok Vijay Gupta (BJP sponsored).
The election petition was presented by Balwant Singh Mankotia, MLA as a petitioner to the Registrar of the High Court assisted by his Counsel H.C. Jalmeria Advocate here today urging the High Court to quash the election of the two persons mentioned above as the Returning Officer had applied illegal, unconstitutional, improper procedure to declare the result. The petitioner has stated that the Returning Officer violated Article 21 of the Constitution of India by deliberately defying the procedure laid down under Article 80(4) of the Constitution, Rule 76 of the conduct of election to the Rajya Sabha which were mandatory. The petitioner has strongly and scientifically argued that when there are two or more members to be elected, the Returning Officer is obliged to apply the system of the proportional representation by the single transferable vote. In the present case the minimum quota required under the constitutional system and the rule of conduct of election is twenty nine. It means the first candidate for his election to the Rajya Sabha had to obtain 29 votes of the MLAs. In the present case the ruling alliance divided 25 votes each for their two candidates with a malafide intention to play fraud on the opposition knowing well that the PDP candidates would certainly secure more than 21 votes. After utilizing 29 votes there were only 21 votes left with the ruling alliance. The opposition candidates of PDP secured 23 votes. The petitioner has strongly made his case stating that, “That if the present neo-doctrine propounded by the Returning Officer in the present case is accepted the entire jurisprudence incorporated in Article 80(4), Rule 76 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 becomes redundant. If the echelons of powers and Election Commission of India are allowed to play hide and seek with the mandate of the Constitution to suit their masters, the entire parliamentary democratic system shall be wiped off and dictatorship of the bureaucracy shall rule the state. Such trends to benefit the ruling parties need to be checked in the interest of parliamentary democracy and to uphold the dignity, supremacy and credibility of the Constitution and rule of law. The power of the ballot shall be diluted to give rise to violence and bullets as it happened in many Afro-Asian countries during the past half a century if the mandate of the Constitution is not respected and followed in letter and spirit. The day people of this country loose faith in the integrity of the institutions like, ‘Election Commission of India’ there shall be a bloody revolution in this country. If the interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution and the Rules is left to the pleasure of the bureaucracy, may it be the Election Commission of India or their chosen Returning Officers”.
It may be recalled that Harsh Dev Singh, leader of the Panthers Legislature party has already challenged the three notifications to fill four Rajya Sabha seats through three biennial elections as unconstitutional, and illegal.
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