Delhi High Court junks plea against election of AAP candidate in 2022 assembly bypoll

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea against the election of AAP MLA Durgesh Pathak in the 2022 Delhi assembly bypoll from Rajinder Nagar constituency.

On February 4, Justice Mini Pushkarna said the failure of a winning election candidate to maintain proper accounts would not affect poll results and wasn't a corrupt practice.

"Even if the allegations made in the petition regarding not maintaining proper account is established, that would still not amount to constituting a corrupt practice, in terms of the law laid down by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the petition does not disclose any cause of action," the court held.

It relied on a decision passed by the apex court in which it held the failure on the part of the returned candidate to maintain accounts, as required by Sections 77(1) and 77(2) of the Representation of People (RP) Act, wouldn't affect the result of the election and did not fall within the scope of corrupt practice.

The petitioner sought to declare Pathak's election as null and void aside from debarring him from contesting assembly elections for next six years under the RP Act.

One Ramesh Kumar Khatri alleged the AAP leader showed fabricated expenses in the day-to-day expenditure register.

Pathak, said Khatri, did not disclose true accounts of expenditure incurred on refreshment, hoarding, banners, pamphlets, brooms, etc., in his election expenditure register.

The court, while dismissing the plea, said every contravention of Section 77 of the RP Act, which mandated every candidate to keep a separate and correct account of all election expenditure, did not constitute a corrupt practice.

"There is no averment in the election petition that Pathak has spent for the election, an amount exceeding the prescribed limit or that the result of the election was materially affected by the failure of Pathak to give true and correct accounts of the expenditure," it said.

The only allegations in the election petition related to improper maintenance of accounts which under the law laid down by the apex court "did not fall within the scope of corrupt practice", it added.