The Supreme Court on Wednesday set a 15-day deadline for Delhi High Court to dispose of the appeal by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan in the paid news case.
The apex bench, however, refused to interfere with the HC order that stayed the show-cause notice issued by the Election Commission to Chavan for not giving correct expenses incurred in the 2009 Assembly polls.A bench of Justices FM Ibrahim Kalifulla and SK Singh said it was not in favour of the matter dragging and directed the High Court to decide the issue at the earliest. The court was hearing an appeal by Madhavrao Kinhalkar, who had filed the complaint against Chavan before the EC.
Chavan, an MP from Nanded was issued show-cause notice by the EC on July 13, 2014 after it found him guilty of failing to "lodge his account of election expenses in the manner required by the (Representation of the People) Act and Rules.Chavan had a host of legal luminaries on his side comprising senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Mohan Parasaran and Salman Khurshid, who opposed the appeal.