CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has rejected BJP MLA Tankadhar Tripathy’s application seeking dismissal of the petition filed by ex-MLA Dipali Das challenging his election from Jharsuguda Assembly constituency.
Tripathy had contended that the election petition was bereft of material facts, lacked cause of action and did not constitute any triable issues. Senior advocate GK Agarwal represented him.
However, Justice Sashikanta Mishra held that no case was made out by Tripathy to dismiss the election petition at the threshold. “The pleadings on behalf of the petitioner disclose material facts, all of which are triable issues and therefore, constitute valid cause of action for filing the Election Petition.
The contentions raised by Tripathy are therefore, bereft of any merit,” Justice Mishra observed. The petition filed by Dipali has sought declaration of Tripathy’s election as null and void on grounds of suppression of information at the time of filing nomination papers and alleged irregularities in the counting process. On Dipali’s behalf, senior advocate Bidyadhar Mishra had submitted that Tripathy had not disclosed criminal cases against him in his affidavit while filing nomination papers.
Mishra also alleged that at the time of counting under 12 control units at eight polling stations, 6,313 votes were not counted. “If these votes had been counted nobody knows what could have been the result,” he stated. Dipali had lost to Tripathy by a margin of 1,333 votes, as per results declared on June 4 last year.