Gurumurthy challenges EC order rejecting his nomination to contest polls

Chennai:

 BJP candidate for Nilgiris constituency S Gurumurthy has challenged Election Commission order rejecting his nomination to contest Lok Sabha elections in the High Court.

Urging High Court to issue directions to restrain returning officer from declaring the candidate list for 19 Nilgiris (SC) parliamentary constituency pending disposal of the writ petition, Gurumurthy said Section 36 (4) of the Representation of People’s Act 1951 lays down that a returning officer shall not reject any nomination paper on the ground of any defect which is not a substantial character.

“I submit, there was no defect whatsoever in the nomination papers filed by me except Forma A & B were submitted a few hours late. Such a defect can certainly not be termed as substantial and nomination should have been accepted in terms of Section 36 (4),” he stated.

The returning officer of Nilgiris parliamentary constituency is vested with the quasi judicial authority to determine if a particular defect is substantial or not and such authority ought to be exercised by him after giving the petitioner an opportunity to be heard, he said.

The Act also states that if any defect of substantial character is found either by the returning officer or by any other party the returning officer shall permit the candidate to rectify within next day, he stated.

 Gurumurthy submitted that Section 36 (5) of the Representation of People’s Act requires the returning officer to give time not later than one day to rebut any objection raised by him. “The refusal to grant an opportunity to the petitioner and rejecting his nomination paper was clearly an arbitrary exercise of discretion vested in the Returning Officer. If the petitioner was given an opportunity to be heard, he would have been able to satisfy the Returning Officer of Nilgiris Parliamentary constituency that the defect was not at all substantial and does not merit rejection of nomination paper instantly,” he stated.

Gurumurthy urged the High Court to issue direction calling for the records from the file of the Returning Officer and quash the same and further direct the returning officer to include the petitioner’s name in the list of valid nominated candidates for 19 Nilgiris (SC) Parliamentary constituency.