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Kanjhla’s election void
Maneesh Chhibber
Our High Court Correspondent

Chandigarh, April 28
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today unseated an Independent MLA in Punjab. Declaring the election of Mr Gobind Singh Kanjhla, a former minister in the Parkash Singh Badal government, from the Sherpur Assembly constituency in Sangrur district as void, Mr Justice M.M. Kumar upheld the allegation levelled by the petitioner that the MLA had indulged in corrupt practices to clinch the election.

In her petition, defeated Congress candidate Harchand Kaur, who came third after Mr Kanjhla and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Piara Singh, had alleged that Mr Kanjhla was instrumental in getting thousands of votes in the Sherpur constituency deleted from the voters' list.

She had also alleged that during his tenure as Minister for Social Security and Women and Child Development in the Badal government, the MLA had secured various types of government pensions for 27,856 persons in his constituency alone. Many of the beneficiaries, it had been alleged, were ineligible to receive the pensions.

She had also alleged that even as the code of conduct was in force, Mr Kanjhla distributed old-age pensions among people in the constituency between January 25, 2002, and February 11, 2002.

In the February 13, 2002, election for the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Mr Kanjhla, who had contested as an Independent after being denied ticket by the SAD, had polled 30,132 votes, while his nearest rival, Mr Piara Singh of the SAD, had polled 26,525 votes.

In his order, Mr Justice Kumar held that the petitioner had been successful in establishing beyond any doubt that the MLA had indulged in corrupt practices to win the election.

He also ordered that the Election Commission would consider whether to disqualify the MLA from contesting elections for indulging in corrupt practices. Mr Justice Kumar also directed the respondent to pay Rs 50,000 as cost to the petitioner.

The court also did not find any merit in the contention of the MLA that he had left the SAD before the elections and hence it could not be said that he benefited from the work done by him as a minister.