Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has dismissed an election petition that challenged the election of BRS’ Kova Laxmi as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Asifabad.
The petition was filed by Ajmera Shyam, who sought to annul Laxmi’s election and declare himself as the duly elected candidate.
The dismissal came within a timeline of nine months and 20 days, adhering to the stipulations outlined in Section 86(7) of the Representation of the People Act, which emphasizes timely resolutions of electoral disputes.
Shyam’s legal representation, senior counsel C Raghu, argued that Laxmi failed to meet nomination requirements as mandated by the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
Specifically, it was claimed that her nomination was incomplete because she did not submit five years’ worth of income tax returns.
Furthermore, Shyam alleged that Laxmi had intentionally concealed her income for certain years, constituting a corrupt practice under Section 123(2) of the Act.
In response, Kova Laxmi contested the maintainability of Shyam’s petition, asserting that it was filed without proper compliance with Form 25 requirements.
Her counsel, J Ramachandra Rao, argued that the allegations were false and frivolous. Laxmi denied any wrongdoing regarding income disclosure and pointed out that Shyam did not raise any objections during the nomination scrutiny process. Rao also claimed that Shyam himself failed to disclose existing government contracts in his affidavit.
Justice Lakshman ruled that the non-disclosure of income tax returns did not constitute grounds for voiding an election.
He noted that during nomination acceptance, returning officers are only required to verify whether all sections of the nomination form are filled out correctly; they are not tasked with conducting exhaustive inquiries at this stage.
The judge emphasized that since Shyam did not object to Laxmi’s nomination at the time it was scrutinized, his claims were unsustainable.
In his judgment, Justice Lakshman highlighted the importance of maintaining electoral integrity and underscored that free and fair elections are fundamental to democracy. He compared the vote counts between Shyam and Laxmi to illustrate that voters had expressed confidence in Laxmi’s candidacy.
The judge further remarked that if non-disclosure of four years’ worth of income tax returns was deemed significant enough to challenge an election result, then Shyam’s failure to disclose his government contracts should also be considered a substantial omission.
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