Prajwal Revanna gets relief from legal battle against his election

HC dismisses another plea on technical grounds

Hassan Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna got a relief from the legal battle against his election with the High Court of Karnataka on Friday dismissing another petition on technical grounds that the petitioner had not complied with a mandatory procedure prescribed in law while filing the petition challenging the legality of election of a returned candidate.

Justice John Michael Cunha passed the order while allowing Mr. Prajwal’s application for dismissal of the petition filed by G. Devaraje Gowda, a voter from Hassan.

The court found that the petitioner had failed to comply with the Section 81(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 as the petitioner had not attested annexures appended to the petition. The court said non-attested annexure cannot be relied upon by the court while framing issues and hence cannot proceed further as Section 86 mandates that the court dismiss a petition that does not comply with the provisions of the Section 81 of the Act.

Though the petitioner had rectified the omissions after filing the petition, the court found that the mandatory procedures were required to be rectified within 45 days from the date of election of the returned candidate. The petition cannot be considered to be filed as per Section 81(3) of the Act as the defects were not rectified within 45 days, the deadline fixed in Section 81 of the Act for filling petition challenging election of a returned candidate, and in this case, the defects were rectified after 45 days, the court observed.

Section 81(3) of the Act states that every election petition shall be accompanied by as many copies thereof as there are respondents mentioned in the petition, and every such copy shall be attested by the petitioner under his own signature to be a true copy of the petition.

With this order, two petitions questioning Mr. Prajwal’s election on various grounds, including allegation of indulging in corrupt practices and non-disclosure of information in his nomination paper, were put to rest on technical grounds.

Another petition, filed by defeated candidate A. Manju was dismissed by the court on January 17 as he had not filed the mandatory affidavit in the prescribed format enumerating the instances of corrupt practices that he had alleged that Mr. Prajwal committed during the election process.