CUTTACK: In a significant judgment, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday declared election of Jogesh Singh, Congress MLA from Sundargarh Assembly constituency, invalid for submitting fake caste certificate during the 2014 polls. The HC order came after it adjudicated two election disputes filed by Sahadev Xaxa and Ajay Patel who had alleged that Singh, despite not being a scheduled tribe (ST), had managed to obtain an ST certificate and contested the election. After hearing petitioners’ counsels and recording of evidence of several witnesses, the single judge bench of Justice BK Nayak held that Singh indeed had submitted fake caste certificate and disqualified his election.
Sundargarh Assembly constituency is reserved for ST category candidates. Singh, who had secured 66,138 votes, defeated his nearest candidate Kusum Tete of ruling Biju Janata Dal with a margin of 12,584 votes. There were nine candidates in the fray for the Sundargarh constituency in the 2014 General Election. Xaxa, one of the defeated candidates, was fielded by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Singh’s election was challenged on the ground that he does not belong to ST but by concealing his caste by producing a fabricated certificate, he contested the election from the reserved seat.
It was alleged that he had managed to get the false ST certificate showing his caste as Bhuyan on the basis of record rights of a particular khatian which was submitted along with his nomination paper. It was also alleged that he had concealed details of some material information required to be furnished in the affidavit filed in Form-26 accompanying his nomination paper resulting in improper acceptance of such nomination by the Returning Officer. Later, Singh had filed a prayer seeking dismissal of the election petitions. Meanwhile, Singh has said he would challenge the HC order in the Supreme Court.