BENGALURU: A BJP candidate has challenged in the High Court the withdrawal of her caste certificate by the tahsildar, resulting in the rejection of her nomination papers for the BBMP polls.
Hearing the petition filed by Shobha from Kempapura Agrahara (Ward No 122) on Tuesday, Justice Raghavendra Chauhan issued notices to the departments of revenue and social welfare, the BBMP commissioner, the state election commissioner, the local returning officer and the tahsildar, Bengaluru North taluk. The matter was posted to August 20 for further hearing.
Shobha had filed for nomination as a BJP candidate from the Kempapura Agrahara ward. The ward is reserved for candidates belonging to the ST community. But her nomination papers were rejected by the returning officer as the tahsildar had withdrawn the caste certificate.
This has been challenged by Shobha. She contended that the tahsildar has no power to withdraw the caste certificate as only the district caste verification committee can do so. Advocate Ganapathi N Bhat told the court that the scrutiny of Shobha’s nomination papers was postponed several times on August 11. The tahsildar came to the ward office at 6.30 pm and withdrew the caste certificate saying he had issued it under “tension and pressure”.