Patna HC dismisses election petition demanding Barhara RJD MLA’s disqualification
2 min readPATNA: The Patna high court on Thursday dismissed an election petition filed against RJD MLA Saroj Yadav demanding his disqualification from the position on basis that he was handling a government contract while filing his nomination papers at the time of 2015 assembly elections in the state.
While dismissing the petition, the bench of Justice Jyoti Sharan upheld the election of Yadav from Barhara assembly seat in Bhojpur district. The petition was filed by Asha Devi who was also contesting the seat for BJP but lost it to Yadav. It was after defeat, petition was filed by her on December 15, 2015, challenging the qualification of Yadav.
Yadav’s counsel Suman Kumar Jha said that Yadav was involved in construction of panchayat sarkar bhawan in Barhara block before the election.
“It was alleged in the petition that at the time of filing nomination, Yadav was still the contractor of the bhavan which was a violation of The Representation of the People Act,” Jha said.
“But on October 3, 2015, Yadav had already written to state government that as he had decided to contest elections. Thus he would no longer continue to remain involved in the construction of the bhawan. In addition, Yadav also did not filled online form to renew his contract with the state government for the construction. ,” Jha said.
The counsel said that Yadav had filed nomination papers much after the day he had written to state government to discontinue as contractor for the bhawan.
Counsel Jha said that the court, on basis of the above submission along with documents, accepted that Yadav’s qualification was not violation of law and dismissed the petition challenging his election.
Courtesy: TNN
