HC refuses to stay EC order disqualifying Narottam Mishra

Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday refused to stay an Election Commission’s order divesting state minister and BJP leader Narottam Mishra of the assembly membership.

A division bench of Chief Justice Hemant Gupta refused to give interim relief to Mishra and adjourned hearing on his plea against the poll panel’s last month order.

The bench also adjourned the hearing on a plea filed by journalist Surendra Dubey on a related issue too.

The Election Commission unseated Datia MLA Mishra last month for three years for filing wrong accounts of election expenses in the 2008 assembly elections.

The Election Commission had disqualified Mishra from being the member of the state assembly on a compliant by Congress leader Rajendra Bharti, who had lost the 2008 assembly election to Mishra.

Chief Justice Gupta on Tuesday deferred the hearing on two petitions for two weeks after senior lawyer Vivek Tankha sought adjournment of hearing on them, saying that his client Bharti, who is party to both the petitions, has moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of both of the pleas to the apex court.

Mishra’s lawyer sought a stay on the June 23 Election Commission order, saying the BJP leader wanted to cast his vote in the July 17presidential election. The court, however, simply adjourned the hearing, Tankha said.

“My client (Bharti) has petitioned the Supreme Court that the two petitions before the high court should be heard by the apex court,” said Tankha, a former advocate general of Madhya Pradesh.

On July 6, Mishra’s petition against the EC’s order was transferred to the principal bench of the MP High Court at Jabalpur from the Gwalior bench, and was clubbed with Dubey’s PIL.

The PIL demands that following the EC’s action, the Datia seat represented by Mishra in the assembly should be declared as vacant.

“Unhappy with the transfer of writ petition from Gwalior to Jabalpur, my client (Bharti) moved the apex court,” advocate Tankha told reporters.