The Orissa High Court on Friday disposed of a writ petition filed by social activist Subash Mohapatra, who had sought the intervention of the court into his pending representation before the Election Commission of India (ECI). The petitioner has challenged the election of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as an MlA from the Hinjili constituency of Ganjam district for allegedly filing false affidavits detailing his election expenses.
The HC put an end to the matter in the light of a judgment passed in this regard by the Supreme Court last month, informed the petitioner’s counsel Siddharth P Das. Apprehending that he would not get justice from the Orissa High Court, the petitioner had approached the apex court in September seeking a transfer of his case to any other High Court, preferably the Delhi High Court.
Adjudicating the transfer petition, the Supreme Court on October 27 disposed it as ‘withdrawn’ when the ECI expressed its willingness to consider the representation of the petitioner in accordance with law. Since nothing further survived in the petition after the ECI’s assurance, the Supreme Court closed the matter asking the ECI to expeditiously consider the petitioner’s representation.
Notably, BJP leader Devanand Mohapatra, who had lost to Naveen Patnaik in the elections of May 2014, too had approached the High Court seeking to declare Patnaik’s election as null and void for filing “false” affidavits. In the light of the Supreme Court’s decision in the matter after ECI assurance, the BJP leader too is going to contest the case before the ECI, informed his counsel Pitambar Acharya.