The High Court of Karnataka has decided to continue hearing on a petition questioning the legality of the election of Congress party’s N.A. Haris to the State Legislative Assembly from Shantinagar constituency in the polls held in 2023.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order recently while dismissing an application filed Mr. Haris seeking dismissal of the petition, filed by defeated candidate, K. Shivakumar of the BJP. The petitioner had contended that acceptance of nomination papers of Mr. Haris by the returning officer improper as it did not contain proper details and false declaration of various information required to be disclosed as per the law.
Mr. Haris had claimed that the petitioner had not submitted materials in support of the claim that nomination paper was improperly accepted The petition, sans materials, is defective in terms of the provisions of the Representation of People’s Act, it was contended on behalf of Mr. Haris.
However, the court rejected the contentions of Mr. Haris and said that if the allegation in the petition is that there is improper acceptance of nomination papers of the returned candidate, there would be no further requirement of making any further averment or pleading as to how such improper acceptance has materially effected the election results of the returned candidate.
A general averment that the improper acceptance of the nomination of the returned candidate has materially affected the result of the elected candidate itself is sufficient, the court said.
