Cong leader Dahiya’s election void, says HC

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 26

Nearly five years after Congress candidate Jai Tirath Dahiya emerged victorious from Rai by a margin of just three votes, the Punjab and Haryana High Court declared his election void.

In his order released on Thursday morning, Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu asserted that it has been proven in the present case that nine void votes were cast in favour of the returned candidate and two void votes in favour of the petitioner — Inderjit Singh.

After the deduction of void votes from the tally, valid votes polled by the returned candidate were 36,694 and votes polled by the petitioner were 36,698. As a result, Inderjit polled more votes than Dahiya.

“It is clear that the result of the election in so far as it concerns the returned candidate has been materially affected by the improper reception of void votes in his favour,” Justice Sidhu noted.

The Bench observed that Dahiya’s counsel had brought to the court’s notice on August 19 that he resigned from the Assembly on August 1. The Bench noted that the resignation was accepted by the Speaker the same day and a notification in this regard issued by the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat the next day. “The resignation by the returned candidate does not render the election petition as infructuous,” Justice Sidhu declared.

Referring to Section 62(4) of the Representation of the People Act, Justice Sidhu asserted that no person would vote in the same constituency more than once “even though his name may have been registered in the electoral rolls for that constituency more than once”.

If such a person voted twice in that constituency, all his votes in that constituency would be void. As such, the votes cast more than once were void. These void votes were required to be deducted from the total votes polled by the candidate in whose favour these had been cast.

Bogus voting

Congress candidate Dahiya had emerged victorious by a margin of three votes in October 2014. Challenging the election, INLD candidate Inderjit had alleged that Dahiya won the election because of bogus voting.