HC dismisses TMC petition against NPP

SHILLONG, Feb 5: The High Court of Meghalaya has dismissed the writ petition filed by TMC national spokesperson Saket Gokhale seeking action against the NPP for not filing their expenditure report within 75 days of the Assembly elections in 2018.
The petitioner flagged the violation of electoral rules given in Rule 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.
But the learned counsel for NPP, S Sahay, questioned the maintainability of the petition on grounds of the bar under Article 329(b) of the Constitution of India.
“…a constitutional bar exists against interference by Courts in electoral matters and has referred to Article 329(b) of the Constitution, to support this point. He further submits that, the bar to interference includes all matters directly or incidentally connected with the electoral process, which is already under way in the State of Meghalaya, whereby elections to the Legislative Assembly, has been notified on 18.01.2023,” Sahay submitted before the court.
He further stated that the writ petition is hit by inordinate delay since the filing of election expenditure report relates to 2018, while the petitioner has instituted the present writ petition only in 2022, without providing any explanation for the delay in preferring the same.
He submitted that the writ petition was filed in December, 2022, which clearly shows that the same is actuated by political motive as it has been filed immediately prior to the 2023 elections at the behest of the political party, to which the petitioner belongs.
The counsel further said that the petition is liable to be dismissed for concealment of material facts since it is a ‘political interest litigation’.
The court said that the dispute sought to be raised by the writ petitioner will not be entertainable under Article 226 of the Constitution, more specifically with the electoral process already underway.
“This Court having come to a finding on the maintainability of the writ petition to be barred by Article 329(b), the other questions and the authorities placed are not gone into or discussed, and this writ petition accordingly stands dismissed, as not maintainable,” it ruled.
It may be reminded that Gokhale in his plea had called to attention the failure of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Meghalaya to take necessary action against the NPP for flouting the law.