Two lose job in Bhag Singh case

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 5

Just about two months after Jannayak Janta Party’s Kalka candidate for the Assembly elections Bhag Singh moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the deletion of his name from the voters’ list, two persons have lost their job following the holding of an inquiry to ascertain circumstances leading to the non-tracing of relevant record and for fixing responsibility. Action has also been recommended against a former SDO.

As the case came up for resumed hearing this afternoon, the Bench of Justice Rajan Gupta and Justice Karamjit Singh was told that the services of Election Kanungo Jagdish Lal and Data Entry Operator Vinod Kumar had been terminated.

The Bench was also told that the Haryana Chief Electoral Officer had recommended action against three other officials the then SDO(C) Kalka-cum-Electoral Returning Officer Virender Chaudhary, the then BDPO Daljit Singh and Booth-Level Officer Nirmala Kumari.

“As the relevant record is not available and is reportedly lost, a query has been put to counsel representing the respondents about the role of the observer at the relevant time. They pray for some time to address on this issue,” the Bench observed while fixing December 10 as the next date of hearing.

The High Court had earlier called for a short affidavit specifying whether notice was issued before deletion of his name from the voters’ list. The direction came after the Bench was told that the name of Bhag Singh’s wife found mention in the voters’ list. However, his name was deleted at serial number 214. Referring to Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, Bhag Singh’s counsel SS Salar had submitted that the electoral registration officer was required to give reasonable opportunity of hearing regarding action proposed to be taken. This was to be done before deleting entry on the ground that the person concerned ceased to be an ordinarily resident in the constituency. Or else, he was otherwise not entitled to be registered in the electoral roll of the constituency.

He had further submitted that the petitioner has been granted a ticket from the Jannayak Janata Party, being its district president and he had also cast his vote for the election held earlier this year — a fact not disputed by EC counsel Kumar on instructions.

Salar had also submitted that objection regarding bar to entertain the writ petition on account of commencement of election process would not be applicable in the facts and circumstances of the matter. “The challenge is not in the present petition to the rejection of the nomination papers, but the challenge is to the deletion from the electoral rolls,” he had added.