Attempted Fraud & Went To The Extent Of Making Allegations Against Court: MP High Court Imposes Rs 50K Cost On Khandwa BJP MLA

In an election petition filed by Congress leader Kundan Malviya, Madhya Pradesh High Court has levied a cost of Rs 50,000 on incumbent Khandwa MLA Kanchan Tanve. The court imposed the said cost on the MLA for her deliberate attempt to delay the proceedings despite the receipt of notice on time.

The single-judge bench of Justice Gurpal Singh Ahluwalia noted that the respondent MLA's attempt to 'play fraud on the court' and achieve the 'ill-designed' objective of not filing the written statement on time could not be condoned. The court was passing orders in the interim application filed by the 42-year-old legislator to set aside the court's earlier order dated May 13, which made her ex-parte.

“…this cost has been imposed on two grounds i.e. (i) an attempt has been made by respondent No.1 to delay the proceedings in spite of statutory provision of Section 86(6) of the Representation of he People Act, 1951 and (ii) in order to achieve the ill-designed goal respondent No.1 has gone to the extent of making allegation against the Court….', the bench sitting at Jabalpur clarified.

The MLA had earlier stated that the court deemed her to be served on May 06 itself, though the acknowledgement of receipt of notice was received by the Court Registry only on May 08. Accordingly, on the next date of posting, i.e., on May 13, the court set her as ex-parte since she did not appear in person or through her counsel. However, the office note dated April 27 had already mentioned that the notice was served to the respondent on April 23, as per the attached service report obtained from the Indian Postal Website, the court added.

“….Only on the basis of said service report which was supported by the online service report of registered notice, this Court had treated respondent No.1 as served on 06.05.2024. Therefore, the allegation made by respondent No.1 in her application that although the receipt of acknowledgment of notice was received by this Court on 08.05.2024 but before the same the matter was taken up on 06.05.2024 and respondent No.1 was treated as served is false and baseless”, the court emphasised.

Section 86(6) of the 1951 Act prescribes that the proceedings in an election petition should normally continue on a day-to-day basis. The counsel for the respondent MLA had also taken the plea that she couldn't appear before the court on 13.05.2024 due to the ongoing polling in Khandwa Constituency. However, the court responded that she was not required to personally appear before the court, and her counsel could have entered the appearance on behalf of her.

Though the MLA was already set ex-parte for her failure to file the reply on time, the single judge bench set aside the said order subject to the payment of cost imposed solely because of another amendment application filed by the election petitioner.

“…Since an application for amendment is pending and ultimately if it is allowed, then a fresh notice of amended election petition will be required to be issued to respondent No.1 although she has already been proceeded ex-parte.”, the court held.

The matter will be heard again on 4^th July.

Counsel for the Petitioner: Adv. Arvind Shrivastava

Counsel for Respondent No.1: Adv. Anvesh Shrivastava

Case Title: Kundan Malviya v. Smt. Kanchan Tanve & Ors.

Case No: EP No. 2/2024

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