Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 07:32 PM IST

  Court finds MLA guilty of breach, but dismisses case

Court finds MLA guilty of breach, but dismisses case

: AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : May 3, 2016, 6:40 am IST
Updated : May 3, 2016, 6:40 am IST

A Delhi court dismissed a plea seeking lodging of a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against AAP MLA from Model Town Akhilesh Pati Tripathi, saying though it had prima facie found that the

A Delhi court dismissed a plea seeking lodging of a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against AAP MLA from Model Town Akhilesh Pati Tripathi, saying though it had prima facie found that the legislator had breached the cap for poll expenses during the 2013 Assembly election, he could not be put on trial as he was not a public servant at that time.

Special judge Hemani Malhotra said the remedy/action against a candidate’s misconduct lies under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which may result in disqualification of an elected candidate.

The judge said she had thoroughly gone through the complaint and had found there was prima facie evidence that Mr Tripathi incurred higher election expense than the prescribed limit. “But at that time, he was only contesting an election and was not a public servant,” the court noted.

Vivek Garg, an RTI activist, had filed the plea in the court seeking registration of a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr Tripathi for allegedly spending over the prescribed limit of Rs 14 lakh in the 2013 poll campaign.

The court also referred to a Supreme Court verdict in which it had said that under the Election Rules if an account is found to be incorrect or untrue by the EC after inquiry, the EC may disqualify the said person.

Mr Garg, in his complaint, had also sought an FIR against some officials of the EC, Delhi chief electoral officer here and some officials of the Delhi government, for allegedly colluding with Mr Tripathi to manipulate the account of expenditure incurred by him.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi