Notices to Centre, AAP by Delhi HC on 11 aspirants' plea

Delhi High Court on Monday asked Centre, Election Commission and AAP Government to file response on a plea by eleven aspirants who sought to file nomination papers from New Delhi Assembly Constituency, from where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is contesting the elections.

The court will hear on February 6, the plea of all eleven aspirants challenging single judge bench order dismissing their plea calling it not maintainable.

The petitioners had said that their nomination papers were wrongly, illegally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally rejected and thereby, they have been deprived of their constitutional rights to contest elections.

The Delhi High Court on January 28 had dismissed as non-maintainable a plea by eleven aspirants who were not allowed to file nomination papers from New Delhi Assembly seat from where Kejriwal is contesting.

Dismissing the plea, Justice Sanjiv Sachdeva said under Article 226, it was not maintainable in view of the embargo on court's jurisdiction under Art 329(b) of the Constitution and Section 100 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The petitioner contended that the Returning Officer wrongly rejected their nomination papers and also showed preference to the Delhi Chief Minister.

The plea filed through Advocate Viplav Sharma sought direction to officials to make appropriate guidelines and to facilitate the smooth filing of their nomination papers.

The petitioner contended that the judgements were not applicable as the court had not taken note of Section 100 of the Representation of the People Act in its entirety.

He said the petition was not an appropriate remedy as countermanding an election entailed huge costs and inconvenience to stakeholders.

Sharma also stated that till the time an election petition is decided by the Courts, it will be 3-4 years.IANS