PIL seeking disqualification of PM, Sonia, Mulayam dismissed

Allahabad: Allahabad High Court Friday dismissed a petition seeking disqualification from contesting Parliamentary elections of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati and RLD chief Ajit Singh. A division bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Dilip Gupta also ordered that Rs 20,000 be recovered from the petitioner Khurshid-ur-Rehman, an Aligarh-based lawyer, within a month as he was seeking publicity. The court also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on an additional chief judicial magistrate of Aligarh who had proceeded to seek a report from the police on a complaint lodged by Rehman against these political leaders under various sections of Indian Penal Code, including the ones for fraud and criminal conspiracy, and Prevention of Corruption Act. The court said the ACJM had passed the order invoking Section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code, "without application of mind". The petitioner had claimed that the leaders had "cheated" their voters by forming post-poll tie-ups as they had not disclosed such an intent in their party manifestos.