Punjab and Haryana high court summons Sonipat DEO for assistance in petition challenging Rai MLA's election
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday asked the Sonipat district election officer (DEO) to appear before it to assist in the matter related to the petition challenging the election of Jai Tirath Dahiya as MLA from Rai constituency of the district.
Justice H S Sidhu passed these orders after going through the contents of a report submitted by HC registrar (grouping).
In its report given in a sealed cover, the registrar had produced the result after checking the electronic voting machine (EVMs).
"After going through the contents of the report and results of decoding, it was found that the number of the voters have been highlighted with a marker, the candidates for whom votes have been cast are depicted by serial numbers 1, 2 and 3 etc. It is not known as to which candidate is at which serial number. That information would be available only with the district election officer, Sonipat. In view thereof, the district election officer, Sonipat, be summoned for September 18 with necessary record/information regarding the serial numbers of the candidates of election of 29-Rai assembly constituency," ordered the court.
"After going through the contents of the report and results of decoding, it was found that the number of the voters have been highlighted with a marker, the candidates for whom votes have been cast are depicted by serial numbers 1, 2 and 3 etc. It is not known as to which candidate is at which serial number. That information would be available only with the district election officer, Sonipat. In view thereof, the district election officer, Sonipat, be summoned for September 18 with necessary record/information regarding the serial numbers of the candidates of election of 29-Rai assembly constituency," ordered the court.
The matter is pending before the HC in the wake of petition filed by Inderjit Singh, who had contested the state assembly polls in 2014 from Rai on INLD ticket. He had alleged that some persons had cast bogus votes because of which Dahiya could win the election. The petitioner had also given the details of booths where the bogus voting allegedly took place.
After hearing the petition, the HC had summoned the entire record pertaining to voting in the booths alleged by the petitioner. The court had also summoned the experts from Bengaluru for decoding the EVMs and the registrar of the HC was ordered to prepare the report after examining the entire record.
Dahiya had won by a thin margin of three votes defeating his nearest rival of the Indian National Lok Dal, Inderjit Singh. He had polled 36,703 votes as against his INLD rival Inderjit's 36,700. BJP's Krishna Gahlawat had finished third with 34,523 votes.
Dahiya, however, has recently resigned from the state assembly.
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