High Court dismisses Sunny Deol's plea for deployment of central forces in Gurdaspur

Chandigarh (Punjab): The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday disposed of the actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol’s plea for the deployment of paramilitary forces in Gurdaspur. Deol, who is contesting from Gurdas Lok Sabha seat, sought deployment of the forces on the ground that ‘it is prone to violence.’ However, the court turned down his plea after the Election Commission of India assured that appropriate action had been initiated in this regard.

The Bench of Justice Daya Chaudhary and Justice Sudhir Mittal said that representation sent by the petitioner is already under active consideration which clearly shows that action on the representation of the petitioner has already been taken. “In view of the action taken by respondents No 1 and 2, no further direction is required to be issued in this petition and the present petition is disposed of accordingly,” it said.

In his petition, Deol stated, “Gurdaspur Parliamentary Constituency is a Border constituency and witnessed poll violence in the Panchayat polls conducted in the month of December 2018.” The court also mentioned the action which has been said to be taken. “Out of 1826, 111 no of booths are categorized as critical and 467 booths as vulnerable,” it said. Deol has been fielded against Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar who won the Gurdaspur seat, which went to by-poll in October 2017 after the demise of BJP MP Vinod Khanna.