SC admits Khadapada election petition

In a significant development in the 2014 Khandapada election irregularities case, the Supreme Court on Friday admitted a petition filed by Aama Odisha Party president Soumya Ranjan Patnaik against the Odisha High Court’s order for dismissal of his petition alleging large-scale irregularities committed in the elections in the Khandapada Assembly constituency and served show-cause notice to opposite party Khandapada BJD MlA Anubhav Patnaik.

Soumya Patnaik’s lawyer Pitamber Acharya said his client had filed an election case in the High Court alleging large-scale irregularities and corruption in the last elections in Khandapada. The main allegation was that the laws to be followed during conduct of elections and counting of votes were faulty and in disagreement to the Representation of the People Act. In more than one judgment of the Supreme Court since 1964 it has been pronounced that the High Court can neither go into the motive of the case nor appreciate the evidence and has to conduct a complete hearing and give its comments on each and every issue. But the HC in disagreement with the verdicts of the Supreme Court dismissed the petition at the preliminary stage.Anubhav Patnaik had filed a petition seeking quashing of Soumya Patnaik’s petition at the preliminary stage.