SC upholds Pranab Mukherjee’s election

In a fractured 3:2 judgment, the Supreme Court has upheld the validity of Pranab Mukherjee’s election as the president as it rejected the petition filed by former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma challenging the election on the ground that the UPA nominee was holding the office profit being the chairperson of Kolkata-based Council of Indian Statistical Institute.

The majority judgment was delivered by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, justices P Sathasivam and Surinder Singh Nijjar.

It said the office of chairman of the Institute “did not provide for any of the amenities … and, in fact, it was also not capable of yielding profit or pecuniary gain.” While Mukherjee fetched votes of the value of 7, 13,763, Sangma had bagged votes of the value of 3, 15,987.