By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: In a major relief, Parliamentary Secretary Ismail R Marak has finally won the case in connection with the writ petition filed against him for allegedly trying to conceal the facts about owning a petrol pump, in his nomination papers in the 2008 Assembly election.
Interestingly no judgment was passed by the court in this case since the three petitioners (Escon Marak, Sunen Marak and Gilbert Sangma from Rongram) decided to withdraw the writ petition even before any arguments could take place.
During the hearing of the case on Thursday, the legal counsel of the three petitioners (Escon Marak, Sunen Marak and Gilbert Sangma from Rongram) Dr B Ahmed pleaded before Justice A Roy and Justice PK Saikia of the Principal Bench, Gauhati High Court to allow for withdrawal of the petition.
While pleading withdrawal of the writ petition against Marak, the legal counsel also appealed to the court to allow the petitioners the liberty to approach the courts at an appropriate time in connection with this case.
After due deliberations, Justice Roy and Saikia allowed the petitioners to withdraw the writ petition and also permitted them to approach an appropriate forum in connection with this case.
Informing about this development during a press conference, Marak’s legal counsel Sujit Dey said that during the hearing, the petitioners who had filed the case against the legislator decided to withdraw it for the time being.
According to Dey, the petitioners through their lawyer had sought liberty from the court to withdraw the case and to file it later in ‘an appropriate forum’.
If the petitioners wanted to file a complaint against the legislator under Section 81 of the People’s Representation Act 1951 before the Election Commission, Marak’s legal counsel said that they should have lodged the complaints within 45 days from the date of filing of nomination papers.
On May 15, 2010 the petitioners first filed a complaint against the MLA with the Governor RS Mooshahary alleging that the legislator had concealed facts about his assets by not mentioning in his nomination papers that he owned a petrol pump.
“The Governor on August 22, 2010 sought the opinion of the Election Commission of India and based on the opinion of the EC, the Governor dismissed the complaint saying it was not maintainable,” Dey claimed.
After the ruling of the Governor, the three persons had filed a writ petition with the Principal Bench of the Gauhati High Court on January 19, 2011, Dey added.