The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the Election Commission’s proceedings on a plea for quashing of the election of former Maharasthra chief minister Ashok Shakarrao Chavan for allegedly not submitting the statement of Assembly poll expenses, a mandatory condition under the Representation of People Act.
Since Mr Chavan has already challenged in the Supreme Court the jurisdiction of EC to decide the disqualification under Section 10-A of the RPA, he wanted stay on the poll panel’s proceedings on the ground that its hearing would not in any way be complete as present Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi will be retiring on June 10.
However, a bench of Justices Altams Kabir and J. Chelameswar permitted the EC to complete the hearing but asked the commission not to pronounce its order and keep the same in a “sealed cover” till the apex court has decided Chavan’s petition on the issue of jurisdiction.
The petition against Mr Chavan was filed before the EC by defeated candidate Madhavrao Kinhalkar, alleging that his victorious rival had violated the provisions of section 10-A of the RPA by not submitting the accounts of his poll expenses to the commission. Besides, he had alleged that Chavan had incurred heavy expenses on “paid news” and media ads in various newspapers. As the Delhi high court had rejected Mr Chavan’s petition challenging the jurisdiction of the EC to decide the issue, he had filed a special leave petition in the SC, which is yet to be taken up for hearing.