HC imposes Rs 15k fine on BJD MLA

CUTTACK: The Orissa high court on Monday slapped a penalty of Rs 15,000 on Titlagarh MLA Tukuni Sahoo for intentionally delaying the hearing of a petition challenging her election.
Justice Biswanath Rath also rejected the miscellaneous petition filed by Sahoo, seeking quashing of the election petition filed by Surendra Singh Bhoi, the defeated Congress candidate of the constituency, challenging her election.
“The court observed that the BJD MLA has been deliberately delaying the hearing on an election irregularities case against her last year. Initially, she delayed in replying to the court notices and then she filed a petition seeking quashing of Bhoi’s plea,” said Pitambar Acharya, Bhoi’s counsel.
Tukuni, in her miscellaneous petition, had urged the court to quash Bhoi’s election petition at the preliminary stage without trial as there was no disclosure of any cause of action. But the high court on Monday rejected Tukuni’s plea.
“The court observed that we have furnished enough facts and materials and our petition is a fit case for hearing,” added Acharya.
He said that as per law, an election petition should be heard in an expeditious manner and decided within six months. But in this particular case, the BJD legislator was deliberately trying to delay the hearing, which annoyed the court.
This is the third time the court has imposed a fine on Tukuni in a poll irregularity case. The court had slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 in October and again Rs 5,000 in November last year on her for failing to respond to the notices of the court within the stipulated time.
Congress leader Bhoi had moved the high court challenging Tukuni’s election, alleging that there was massive irregularity in the process of election and counting of votes in 87 booths in Titlagarh assembly segment in last year’s elections due to which he lost.