IMPHAL, April 23: A single bench of justice N Kotiswar Singh, high court of Manipur today declared devoid and dismissed the plea of parliamentary secretary, M Prithiviraj to include the returning officer of Moirang Assembly constituency as respondent party in the case (election petition) filed against him for submitting false affidavit.
Today’s verdict was reserved on April 7 by the same court to be announced on April 16. However, with the case failing to appear on the cause list on the scheduled date, the hearing was again postponed.
The plea was filed by M Prithiviraj, respondent of the case, in response to an election petition filed by one Pukhrem Sharatchandra Singh, who had contested as a NCP candidate.
Sharatchandra in his petition objected the affidavit submitted by Prithiviraj during the filing of nomination in the 10 Manipur Legislative Assembly election held on January 28, 2012.
In the petition the petitioner challenged that the education qualification mentioned by Prithiviraj as MBA student 2003 and 2004 at Mysore University, submitted to the Returning officer of the time was false.
The petition also forwarded the same complaint to the Election Commission of India.
Subsequently, it was found out that Prithiviraj was not a student of the Mysore University.
It may be mentioned that, with regards to the complaint the Election Commission of India (ECI) as per the People’s Representative Act, 1951, intimated the Joint CEO Manipur, to take up disqualification proceedings against MLA.