Rejection of nomination papers: Kerala High Court rejects pleas of NDA candidates

By LE Desk

Kochi, March 22: In a severe setback to the BJP-led NDA in the State, the Kerala High Court on Monday dismissed writ petitions filed by the NDA candidates in Thalassery, Guruvayur, and Devikulm Assembly constituencies challenging the rejection of their nomination papers by the respective Returning Officers.

Justice N Nagaresh observed that the court cannot interfere with the decisions taken by the Returning Officers of the respective constituencies to reject the nomination papers for not meeting certain mandatory requirements. Once the election process has started, the court cannot intervene in the process, the judge said, as reported by The Hindu.

The petitions were filed by N Haridas, a BJP candidate in Thalassery assembly constituency, Nivedida Subramanian, BJP candidate in Guruvayur Assembly constituency, and Dhanalakshmi Marimuthu, AIADMK candidate in Devikulam constituency.

The Election Commission while taking objection to the pleas of the petitioners submitted that any interference by the High Court at this stage would disrupt, stall, and upset the whole election process. In fact, the Supreme Court had held that elections had to be concluded as early as possible per the schedule and all controversial matters and disputes arising out of the election process should be postponed until after the election so that the election proceedings would not be unduly retarded or protracted.

The alleged improper rejection of nomination papers was a ground for declaring void an election of a candidate under section 100(1)(c) of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951. Once the nomination papers of a candidate was rejected, the Act provided only one remedy, that is, filing of election petition after the election was over, the counsel for EC pointed out.

In their petition, the NDA candidates contended that the rejection of their nomination papers was unauthorised and arbitrary. They pointed out that the nomination papers could not be rejected solely on account of minor defects in Form No. A or B per Rule 4 of the Conduct of Election Rules. They pointed out that the ROs acted with undue haste without affording them an opportunity to rectify the errors. The ROs had the power to permit the candidates to correct the mistakes in their nomination papers. In fact, the Election Commission had the power to order the ROs to make such corrections under Article 324C of the Constitution.

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/rejection-of-nomination-papers-kerala-high-court-rejects-pleas-of-nda-candidates/article34132293.ece