[Lok Sabha Elections] Gauhati HC Issues Notice On Plea By Congress Candidate From Karimganj Constituency Challenging Election Of BJP Candidate

The Gauhati High Court yesterday issued summons in an election petition filed under Section 80, Section 80A and Section 81 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 by the Congress candidate for Lok Sabha elections 2024, Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, from No. 7 Karimganj Constituency in Assam challenging the election of winning BJP candidate Kripanath Mallah from the said constituency.

The petitioner alleged that his opposing BJP Candidate (respondent no. 1) committed multiple 'corrupt practices' both while campaigning as well as on the day of elections, including widespread rigging, booth capturing, voter intimidation through undue influence and bribery, etc. and sought for the election to be declared null and void.

It has been stated in the petition that respondent no. 1 was declared as the winner with a margin of mere 1.6 per cent votes against the petitioner.

The Petitioner also raised the contention that his legal team, on the day of the polling, had continuously filed complaints with the Election Commission of India (ECI) via email, flagging the specific cases of rigging and booth capturing across 20 polling stations.

It was further highlighted that the Petitioner's Election Agent had also submitted a complaint on the date of polling detailing the 'corrupt electoral practices' of booth capturing detailing the malpractices committed in 31 specific polling stations.

In the plea, the petitioner alleged booth capturing across 47 polling stations, which constitutes almost double the number of votes than the margin between the petitioner and the winning candidates.

The petitioner also raised issues regarding the integrity of the voting process as ECI stated in its voter turnout data that 11,36,538 votes were polled, which after adding postal ballots became 11,43,796 votes in total. However, on the date of counting, the total number of votes counted was 11,47,607, thereby resulting in an unexplained additional 3,811 votes having been counted.

The single judge bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi issued summons to the respondents.

“Dasti step is permitted to be taken upon the respondents which is to be routed through the Registry of this Court. Such dasti has been allowed taking into account the requirement of disposing the election matters in a time-bound manner,” the Court said.

The matter is listed again on August 19.

Senior Counsel KP Pathak appeared for the Petitioner assisted by Advocates Mrinmoy Dutta, A M Ahmed, Mustafa Khaddam, lmran Uddin Chowdhury and M A Choudhury.

The petition has been filed through the Office of Advocate M. Dutta, AM Ahmed, MK Hussain with the assistance of Delhi-based Advocate Dayaar Singla.

Case Title: Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury v. Kripanath Mallah and 2 Ors.

Case No.: El.Pet./1/2024

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