In a setback for the Congress party ahead April 11 Dhuri byelections, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday set aside the election of Congress MlA from Bhadaur Mohammad Sadique.
With this, the Congress’ already dwindling share in 117-member State Assembly has further dipped down to 42.
Congress won 46 seats in 2012 assembly polls, but two of its MlAs — Joginderpal Jain and Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu — shifted loyalties to join SAD before being re-elected from the same seats as Akali MlAs.
Its number further came down to 43 with Dhuri MlA Arvind Khanna resigning from active politics that necessitated by-election. And now, with High Court’s decision to “unseat” Bhadaur legislator Sadique has brought the total number to 42.
The orders, by Justice Naresh Kumar Sanghi, came on a petition filed by SAD candidate from Bhadaur Darbara Singh Guru in 2012, the same year in which Sadique was elected MlA. Former principal secretary to Punjab Chief Minister, Guru challenged the election on the grounds that a candidate not belonging to Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist religions could not claim the benefit of the reserved quota as Sadique had done.
During the hearing of the petition, the High Court had framed five issues including whether Sadique, being Muslim, was not qualified to contest the election from the assembly constituency reserved for the members of the Scheduled Castes.
Sadique argued that he had converted to Sikhism. He had insisted that his mother Prasanni Devi was a Muslim, but he never professed Islam, and “always professed Sikhism and was an SC”.
After going through the arguments and the documents, Justice Sanghi allowed Guru’s petition holding that Sadique was not qualified to contest the elections from a reserved constituency, being a Muslim.
Pronouncing the judgment on Tuesday afternoon, Justice Sanghi added that Sadique had also failed to prove that he converted to Sikhism at time of scrutiny of the papers and also the election.