Aizawl: Courts look for strong, dependable evidence while dealing with petitions challenging the election of a member of Parliament or legislative assembly, Gauhati High Court said.
Justice Ujjal Bhuyan made the observation while dismissing election petitions filed by Mizoram’s largest regional party Mizo National Front candidates who lost the November 2013 assembly elections in Mizoram.
The judge, while announcing a judgement on the petitions of 11 of the 23 MLA candidates Saturday, said election petition should not be based on hearsay.
He observed that the petitions filed by the 11 candidates lacked strong and dependable evidences to prove that EVMs used in the elections were tampered.
Thus, the petitions violated the principle of The Representation of Peoples’ Act 1950 and 1951.
The 23 unsuccessful MLA candidates had filed a petition in Gauhati High Court demanding an inquiry into the electronic voting machines used in the November 2013 state assembly elections in which the Congress got landslide victory by winning 34 of the 40 seats.
The opposition parties led by MNF that formed into United Democratic Front blamed “EVM rigging” for their electoral debacle.
The petition was filed on January 23, 2014. In February, High Court Chief Justice AM Sapre appointed a two-judge bench comprising Portfolio Judge of Aizawl Bench Justice L S Jamir and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan to take up the petition.
Justice Jamir will hear the remaining 12 petitions. (UNI)
