Court summons MCD councillor on plea against her election

MCD councillor Sikha Shah of Nationalist Congress Party has been summoned by a Delhi court on a plea for quashing her election allegedly because she was "ineligible" to contest it.

The court issued notices to the councillor and Delhi state election commission on the allegation of discrepancies in various documents relating to her age, assets and also that her name figured in electoral rolls of more than one constituency.

Facts concealed

On the plea, which accused the councillor of concealing material facts in her nomination paper, Additional District Judge Inder Jeet Singh summoned her, besides Delhi election commissioner and the returning officer of her constituency asking them to appear before him on July 12.

Sikha Shah had contested the April 15 MCD poll from Jaitpur municipal ward in Badarpur in south Delhi as an NCP candidate and had won by around 1,900 votes.

Doubts regarding age

Jagvir Singh, one of the Jaitpur ward voters, had challenged her election alleging that she had “primarily given her age as 35 years in the affidavit filed before the election officer while there are other documents which says she is 44.”

He accessed information through Right to Information Act, which said Shah not only had her name in voters' list for Jaitpur municipal ward, but she also had a voters’ identity card from Bharpurwa Prakhand, Vijaypur, Bhore Assembly in Bihar which shows her age as 44 years.

"Undoubtedly Shah is registered as elector in more than one constituency, therefore, she is not qualified to be chosen as a councillor in terms of Section 17 of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957," he said.