On AAP leader Somnath Bharti's petition against BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj's election in the Lok Sabha elections, the Delhi High Court on Monday pointed out several mistakes in the plea and asked Bharti to file a corrected one. A bench of Justice Manmeet PS Arora was hearing Bharti's plea which alleged that Swaraj used corrupt practices in Lok Sabha elections. Justice Arora said that there were a lot of typographical errors at the outset, which made it difficult to understand the averments in the petition.
The council said that even the reference to respondents did not correlate with the respondents mentioned in the party's memo and synopsis.
Court asks to file corrected plea in 10 days
After pointing out mistakes, the court granted 10 days to the AAP leader to file a corrected petition. The court has listed the matter on August 14. Upon the request of Bharti's counsel, Justice Arora said, "There are too many mistakes. Correct the petition first. I can't issue notice like this. I will simply adjourn it. Please file a corrected petition."
What is the petition for?
Notably, Bharti filed the petition on July 20, under Sections 80 and 81 of the Representation of the People Act, alleging corrupt practices by Swaraj, her election agent and other persons. Both Bharti and Swaraj contested Lok Sabha elections from the New Delhi constituency. Swaraj clinched the seat by a margin of over 78,000 votes. While Swaraj was polled 4,53,185 votes, Bharti got only 3,74,815 votes.
Bharti, in his plea, alleged that former AAP minister Raaj Kumar Anand who fought on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket was helping Swaraj by cutting into his votes as he was in AAP and campaigned for him till April 9 and suddenly resigned from the party on April 10. Bharti also highlighted that after the Lok Sabha elections, Anand joined the BJP.
(With PTI Inputs)
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