In a significant ruling, the Orissa High Court has dismissed an election petition filed against BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member N Bhaskar Rao and imposed a cost on petitioner Bhujabal Majhi, who is a Congress legislator of Odisha Assembly.
The judgment on the election petition, which was kept reserved by the High Court after completion of hearing on March 28, was pronounced in the Court by Justice Biswanath Rath on Wednesday.
The petition was rejected on the ground that the respondent (Rao) was not served with the exact copy of the petition by the petitioner (Majhi) and hence the Court imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the petitioner.
The Congress legislator in his petition had urged the High Court to declare Rao’s election as “null and void” for allegedly submitting a false affidavit along with his nomination papers. Majhi had claimed that despite having an income tax due of around Rs 41 lakh on the day he filed the nomination, Rao in his affidavit had shown that he had no such liabilities.