SC appoints Dandavate, Reddy to conduct JD poll

NEW DELHI, June 19: The Supreme Court (SC) today appointed two senior Janata Dal (JD) leaders -- Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Madhu ...

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NEW DELHI, June 19: The Supreme Court (SC) today appointed two senior Janata Dal (JD) leaders — Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Madhu Dandavate and Information Minister Jaipal Reddy — to conduct the delayed elections to the post of party president before July 3.

The appointment of the two JD leaders came after senior counsel representing Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad and Returning Officer P K Samantray agreed to a truce suggested by a vacation Bench and gave the common names of the two leaders for conducting the polls. The Bench, comprising Justices S C Sen and S P Kurdurkar, set aside the Delhi High Court (HC) order empowering the national executive to fix the date and venue for the presidential elections, which was to be completed before July 15.

“We feel that it is in the utmost urgency that elections are held to the post of the party president. We, therefore, appoint Prof Madhu Dandavate and Jaipal Reddy jointly to conduct the elections to the post within a period of two weeks from today,” the judges said in their order.

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The judges made it clear that they were not going into the allegations and counter-allegations being levelled by rival parties — Laloo and Samantray.

The order itself came on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by Laloo against the HC judgment.

The judges, however, made it clear that they were not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case decided by the HC.

The judges directed that all grievances of both the parties to the dispute would be heard and decided by two senior leaders appointed by the Court and any decision arrived at by them would be binding on both parties.

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While the Chief Minister has alleged that Samantray and Assistant Returning Officer B K Prasad had inserted their names into the voters’ list illegally and fraudulently, the election officers had charged that the Chief Minister was attempting to delay the holding of the polls.

The judges directed that the two senior leaders would be at liberty to decide the names of persons needed for assisting them to conduct the poll. Both parties to the dispute may raise objections on the composition of the team and the two leaders can take into account these objections before constituting it.

The Court directed that any objection to be filed in any matter by any party should be done in four days’ time. However, all questions, including the question of the venue of the poll, would be decided by the two senior leaders.

The judges wanted to know whether the differences between the parties to the dispute had narrowed down after the HC verdict.

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The judges noted that the image of the party was involved and in case the parties continued to fight out a legal battle it would not help matters.

The HC, while directing the national executive of the party to complete the elections by July 15, had, however, made it clear that in the event of the body failing to do so, Samantray and his team would conduct the poll.