Cuttack: A miscellaneous petition was filed in the Orissa High Court Monday seeking cancellation of an order of the court to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disclose the poll expenses of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Ganjam collector and district election officer Premchand Choudhary has filed the petition and appealed to the court to quash its July 18 notice to the ECI.
Choudhary stated in the petition that the question raised by Subash Mohapatra over the election expenses of the chief minister is not acceptable as he is neither a voter of the CM’s constituency nor a resident of the district. “While the assembly election was held in 2014, Mohapatra filed the petition in the HC in 2016 which clearly indicated that the petition was filed with some vested interest,” Choudhary stated in his petition.
Choudhary stated, “In normal course, if there is no controversy over an election, the records related to it are destroyed after a year. So the petition is not acceptable.” Notably, Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra had July 18 issued the notice to ECI while hearing a petition alleging that there are discrepancies in the election expenses filed with the ECI. The bench had directed the ECI to submit its reply by August 17.
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