CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has admitted the election petition filed by senior BJP leader and former Union minister Dilip Kumar Ray against Sarada Prasad Nayak of BJD, who won the Rourkela seat in the recent Assembly polls. Ray lost to Nayak by a margin of 3,552 votes.
While issuing notice returnable within four weeks to Nayak, the single judge bench of Justice Sasikanta Mishra on Monday fixed August 27 for hearing on the matter along with the Rourkela MLA’s reply (on affidavit) to the allegation that he had filed nomination papers which were “inherently defective” and liable to be rejected.
Ray has sought the court’s direction to declare the election of Nayak as void and order for re-election or fresh poll on the ground that he had suppressed information regarding his criminal antecedents and properties while filing nomination papers on May 3, 2024.
Ray alleged in his petition that Nayak had deliberately concealed that a criminal case against him was pending before the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM), Panposh. The case was registered at the Sector-7 Rourkela police station on October 21, 2002.
The magistrate court had framed charges against him in the case on September 20, 2009 under sections 147, 341, 332, 336 and 337, and 149 of IPC. Nayak had clearly disclosed his criminal antecedent regarding this case when he filed his nomination papers during the 2019 election, but he suppressed it while filing his nomination papers in 2024, Ray alleged.
He also alleged that Nayak had concealed information regarding his shares in the joint ownership properties concerning plots of land under Nischintkoili tehsil in Cuttack district. The petition further claimed, “The returning officer fell into grave error and committed serious irregularities in not considering the objection raised by Ray with regard to the validity of the nomination paper of Nayak. The nomination filed by Nayak was inherently defective as it was not complied with the provisions under Section 33A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and Rule 4A of the Conduct of the Election Rules, 1961.”