Jabalpur, November 15
Madhya Pradesh High Court has dismissed a writ petition filed by Congress candidate from the Silwani constituency in Raisen district Jaswant Singh Raghuvanshi challenging the returning officer’s decision to reject his nomination papers for the Assembly polls in the state to be held at the end of this month.

Single Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court comprising Justice Prakash Shrivastava turned down Raghuvanshi’s writ petition yesterday, observing that the returning officer’s decision could be challenged under an election petition in accordance with the Representation of People’s Act, 1951.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that according to an order passed by a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in 2000, the court could intervene in some special cases relating to the election procedure. However, the government lawyer contended that a larger Bench of the apex court had, in 1952, observed that courts could not interfere with the Election Commission’s work.

“The writ petition is not an appropriate remedy in this regard,” the Bench observed. — PTI