Paving way for fresh the Rajya Sabha elections on the vacant seat of former Rajya Sabha MP Kunwar Deep Singh, the Jharkhand High Court on Thursday dismissed the election petition filed by the former Human Resource Development Minister Baidyanath Ram challenging his election to the Rajya Sabha. Singh was elected to the Rajya Sabha on JMM ticket amid allegations of horse-trading on June 17, 2010, but later joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) and subsequently got elected again to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal on Trinamool’s ticket.
“The petition filed by former MlA Baidyanath Ram was dismissed by the court on technical grounds after which elections for the vacant seat could be conducted now,” said Singh’s counsel Arvind Kumar lall. Fourteen months are still left to complete the term of the vacant seat of the Rajya Sabha for which the Election Commission of India is free to issue notifications at any point of time, he added.
Ram, in his petition, had alleged that Singh did not attach authentic documents while filing his nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. While former Rajya Sabha MP Ajay Maroo, also a candidate for the seat, filed an election petition alleging Singh of holding an office of profit in a board formed under the Union food processing ministry, which was later withdrawn with the permission of the court.
lall had argued before the court that Singh, against whom the election petition was filed, has already resigned from the seat of the Rajya Sabha of the State of Jharkhand due to which the election petition itself becomes infructuous, adding further that there was no need of further proceeding with the election petition.
After Singh resigned from the seat, the Election Commission in February 2014 had issued a notice for fresh Rajya Sabha polls for the vacant seat but Maroo rushed to the ECI, requesting it to postpone the elections on the ground that the matter was sub-judice in the court, notifications was cancelled by it.