The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday issued notice to both the recently elected Rajya Sabha MPs from Haryana, Subhash Chandra and Birender Singh, on an election petition seeking fresh elections.
The notices came on a petition filed by another Rajya Sabha contender RK Anand, who was defeated in the election for the upper house, held on June 11, 2016.
In his petition, Anand sought fresh elections in the State for the two seats of the Upper House, or declaration of his name as the winning candidate. The hearing on the election petition filed by Anand was put off by the High Court pointing certain objections on the petition. High Court had objected to the inclusion of RK Nandal, secretary of Haryana Vidhan Sabha and returning officer of the election, in the list of respondents in the petition.
Anand, in his petition, had alleged that Subhash Chandra had got undue favours from the electoral staff. He contended that Chandra had met the returning officer at the Vidhan Sabha accompanying
some of his acquaintances just a day before the Rajya Sabha elections.
Anand alleged that the official pen was removed from the polling area in a clandestine and dishonest manner in an effort to sabotage the election. He had alleged that due to removal of the actual official pen, the votes of his supporting MlAs got invalid.
The petitioner had also raised question on the process of holding of elections for Rajya Sabha. Taking exception, the petitioner questioned that how could, the elections for the Upper House be held through Vidhan Sabha. Taking up the petition Justice P B Bajanthri issued notices to both the elected members and the returning officer for October 6.
Anand, an Independent candidate backed by the Indian National lok Dal (with 20 MlAs) and the Congress (17 MlAs), had suffered a shocking defeat after votes of 12 Congress MlAs were declared invalid in the Rajya Sabha elections.