PATNA: The Patna High Court on Tuesday, in a relief to RJD MLC Subodh Kumar Rai , dismissed a LPA (letter patents appeal) in which his election was challenged on the ground of suppression of information while filing nominations.The division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, while hearing the LPA, also upheld the single bench judgement of Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh in which he had ruled that the election of the MLC could be challenged by filing election petition before the Election Commission of India (ECI) or by moving before ECI’s tribunal and not directly before high court. The single bench had delivered the judgment on the matter on November 6, 2017.Rai’s election was challenged by Ajay Kumar Kushwaha of JD(U) who had unsuccessfully contested against him in year July 2015. He was elected for the state council from Vaishali Local Authority Counsel. The MLC was represented before the division bench by counsel Suman Kumar Jha. Kushwaha had filed an appeal before the division bench against the single bench’s judgement.Jha said that Kushwaha had moved court alleging that Rai, while filing of nomination papers, had concealed information about a criminal case lodged against him.“The case was lodged with the Industrial police station of Vaishali district on February 12, 2013 under different sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rioting and theft,” Jha said adding one can file election petition before the ECI or move before its tribunal with 45 days of election in such cases for challenging the election but it was not done in case of Rai.He said that the petitioner had cited example of K Venkatachalam versus A Swamickan case of Supreme Court in 1994 where election of Venkatachalam in Tamil Nadu legislative assembly was cancelled on basis of impersonation by him. “Rai’s case is completely different from Venkatachalam,” he said.

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