Cuttack: The Orissa High Court Friday annulled the election of Sukanti Subudhi, corporator of ward No-18 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), on the ground of discrepancies in her name and educational qualification mentioned in her nomination paper.
Declaring the 2014 election of Subudhi null and void, a bench of Justice Biswanath Rath has directed the state government to conduct a by-poll for the post within two months. The HC also quashed an earlier judgement passed by Khurda district and sessions court in this connection.
The court’s direction came in response to a petition filed by Punam Parida who had unsuccessfully contested the municipal election from ward No-18. Parida had stated that Subudhi’s school certificate mentioned her name as Dhadi Jena and her father’s name as Panu Jena while in her nomination paper she mentioned her husband’s name as Gauranga Subudhi.
Subudhi had contested the polls as an independent candidate and won the election with 859 votes. On the other hand, Parida got 626 votes and defeated.
Later, Parida filed a petition in the Khurda district sessions judge court alleging Subudhi had furnished false information in her nomination paper. However, the district judge had rejected Parida’s petition citing that the petitioner had not raised her objection during the election.
Challenging the district court’s ruling, Parida had moved the HC. The HC had issued notice to Subudhi and asked her to submit all records related to her election. Parida’s counsel Sudhansu Sekhar Pratap had informed the court that Subudhi had furnished false information in her nomination paper which violates Sections 28 and 89 (B) of Municipal Corporation Act, 2003 and requested the court to declare her election null and void. PNN
