India
Case against Smriti Irani dismissed by Patiala House Court.
Updated : Oct 18, 2016, 05:15 PM IST
In a major relief for Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, a Delhi Court has dismissed a fake degree case against her. According to Patiala House court, the petition was filed to harass her.
"Complainant may not have filed it if she was not a central minister. Original evidence has already been lost due to passage of years, secondary evidence won't be enough for court," said Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh, reports NDTV.
The Patiala House court on Tuesday pronounce its order in the fake degree case of former Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani after the Election Commission submitted the required documents.
Section 125A of RPA deals with penalty for filing a false affidavit and entails a jail term of up to six months or a fine or both.
Earlier, Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh reserved its order for Tuesday after the Election Commission filed the documents in a sealed cover relating to Irani's educational qualification submitted by her for contesting the 2004 general elections. Irani had given information about her educational qualifications in affidavits to the Election Commission to contest various elections.
In June last year, a case was filed by freelance writer Ahmer Khan, who accused Irani of providing contradictory affidavits about her educational qualifications during different elections.
Following the court's direction, Delhi University had also submitted that the documents pertaining to Irani's B A course in 1996, mentioned by her in an affidavit filed during 2004 Lok Sabha elections, were yet to be found.
However, while filing affidavit in her Rajya Sabha nomination papers from Gujarat in 2011, she said her highest educational qualification was B.com, Part 1 (correspondence course) from Delhi University.
With ANI inputs