Orissa High Court annuls BMC corporator's election

The Orissa High Court today annulled the 2014 election of a Bhubaneswar Municipal corporator on the ground of mismatch in her name and educational data mentioned in her nomination paper and accompanying affidavits.

Declaring the election of Sukanti Subudhi, the corporator of ward no 18, as null and void , the Bench of Justice Biswanath Rath ordered the state government to hold election to the vacant ward within two months.

The High Court also quashed an earlier judgment passed in this connection by the Khurda district judge in January 2015.

The judgment came on a writ petition filed by Punam Parida, who had unsuccessfully contested the Municipal elections from the same ward in 2014.

She had alleged in her petition that Subudhi had submitted a forged transfer certificate (TC) from her school in which she was named as Dhadi Jena.

"while the TC mentioned that she left the school in 1988 as a Class 9 student, the affidavit submitted by Subudhi mentioned that she left the school in the year 1998 as a class 10 student , the petitioner had alleged, urging the High Court to declare Subudhi's election null and void.

Parida had brought the discrepancies to the notice of Khurda district election officer at the time of the poll but cognizance was not taken. She then filed an election petition before the Khurda district judge which was also turned down.

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