KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Friday dismissed a petition by the Congress' West Bengal unit, alleging a discrepancy in the age and the school pass-out year mentioned in a poll affidavit by the BJP's Nandigram bypoll candidate Hasirani Rath.
The state Congress had claimed that Rath's affidavit mentioned her age as 60-plus, while she listed her Class 10 pass-out year as 1965, pointing out that this leaves an age gap.
Justice Krishna Rao pronounced in court that the petition by the state Congress is dismissed. A detailed judgment is likely to be uploaded on the high court website later in the day.
Following the conclusion of arguments on September 25, Justice Rao had reserved judgment in the Congress party's petition.
The Election Commission (ECI) had claimed that the West Bengal Congress has no locus standi as they have no right to complain about candidature scrutiny.
Claiming that the Election Commission is duty-bound to scrutinise the affidavit, West Bengal Congress' lawyer prayed for an order by the court for examining the documents submitted by the BJP candidate for the October 6 by-election to the Nandigram Assembly constituency.
ECI's counsel Jishnu Chowdhury stated that the scrutiny for the October 6 Nandigram bypoll was held on September 17 and an objection cannot be raised at this stage. Chowdhury argued that an alleged incorrect statement is not a ground for rejection of the nomination of a candidate.
Senior advocate D S Naidu, also representing the ECI, stated that the age issue cannot be considered as a material defect that can result in rejection of Rath's candidature since there is no maximum age limit fixed for contesting an election.
West Bengal Congress' counsel Ritju Ghosal had stated that it was the duty of the Election Commission to verify the documents submitted. He had prayed for an order by the court for examining the documents submitted by the BJP candidate.