Post News Network
Cuttack: The Orissa High Court Thursday provided major relief to Kandhamal MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh by rejecting a petition seeking nullification of her election on citizenship grounds.
Justice KR Mohpatra rejected the petition filed by BJP leader Rudra Madhav Ray who had unsuccessfully contested Singh, a BJD candidate, in the bypoll in 2014 conducted for the Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency after the untimely death of Singh’s husband and the then MP Hemendra Singh.
Ray, in his petition, had said only Indian citizens are allowed to contest for membership of Parliament under Article 102 of Indian Constitution.
The BJP leader said Singh, who is from Nepal, has been residing in India by virtue of her marriage to Hemendra, a member of the Nayagarh royal family. He had then urged the HC to nullify the election of Singh to the Lower House as she was not a citizen of India.
Singh had also filed a miscellaneous case in the HC, under the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, challenging Ray’s petition. Earlier, the court had served a notice on Singh asking her to file a reply as to why her election should not be
cancelled.
