The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Gautam Buddha Nagar District Magistrate in connection with a plea challenging the Allahabad High Court’s decision to remove them as parties in an election petition. The petition relates to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the Gautam Buddha Nagar constituency of Uttar Pradesh.
Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar presided over the case involving Geeta Rani Sharma, who alleged that her nomination papers were improperly rejected. The bench criticized the High Court’s decision to exclude the district magistrate from the petition, emphasizing the need for his involvement given his direct role in the election process.
“As per the allegations, the nomination papers were wrongly rejected. The winning candidate would not be able to answer the said assertions. The high court was wrong in deleting at least the district magistrate from the array of parties,” the Supreme Court noted during the session.
The dispute originated when Sharma’s nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer, prompting her to file a legal challenge under Section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. This section allows for the contestation of an election on grounds of improper conduct by the election officials.
The Allahabad High Court had previously relied on Section 82 of the same act, which mandates that an election petition should include as respondents the returned candidates and other contesting candidates, but does not necessarily include the ECI or the district magistrate. The High Court ruled that these were not essential parties to the petition, a decision now under scrutiny by the Supreme Court.
