HC allows EC to proceed against ex-CMs Chavan,Koda

Chavan is an MLA from Maharashtra while Koda,currently lodged in Jharkhand jail for his alleged role in a money laundering and corruption case,is a Lok Sabha MP from Singhbhum in Jharkhand.

“The(Election) Commission can go into the truthfulness or untruthfulness of the accounts filed by the elected candidates,” the court said.

“The Commission has correctly appreciated and understood the law laid down therein and therefore we concur with the view expressed by it (EC). The writ petition being devoid of merit and stands dismissed,” the bench said citing various apex court’s rulings.

The court further said,”It should be clear that there is a check with regard to the conduct of the contesting candidates as well as the elected candidates…”

The EC had begun proceedings against Chavan on a complaint by BJP leaders and others alleging he had shown a poll expenditure of merely Rs 11,000 in the 2009 assembly elections despite allegedly paying huge sums of money to various newspapers for a favourable coverage about his poll campaign.

The EC had begun proceedings against Koda for his alleged failure to submit his poll expense account in a 2009 bye election.

On the basis of complaint by BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and others,the poll panel had on April 2 decided to proceed against Chavan over the issue of “paid news” in some Hindi and Marathi newspapers after paying them money during the 2009 assembly elections.

Chavan moved the high court challenging the poll panel’s decision to proceed against him,contending that it has no power to do so.

Koda,in a separate petition,had challenged the EC notice of October 7,2010 and January 26,2011,threatening him with disqualification for allegedly not filing detailed accounts about his poll expenses during the 2009 elections. Koda,who has been in jail since his arrest in November 2009,had said that the Commission has issued notice to him on the basis of IT returns filed by him in 2009 and sought quashing of the notice.

According to the petition,Koda was elected as independent MP in 2009 and in October 2010 the Election Commission had issued notice to him asking him as to why he should not be disqualified on the ground that he had shown the election expenses much less than the actual amount of nearly Rs 19 lakh.