Ashok Chavan
The Delhi high court on Friday quashed the Election Commission’s order holding former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan guilty of filing incorrect expenses for the 2009 Assembly elections.
The court set aside the poll panel’s July 13 showcause notice issued to Mr Chavan in which the commission had set a 20-day deadline for him to respond. The poll panel had found him guilty of failing to “lodge his account of election expenses in the manner required by the (Representation of the People) Act and Rules.”
The high court passed the order in response to a plea filed by the politician challenging the EC’s notice saying he had filed the poll expenses correctly, in time, and as per the manner required under the law. On July 28, the high court had stayed the showcause notice.
The Congress leader had contended that the poll panel didn’t follow procedure laid out in the Representation of the People Act prior to giving its findings, as no opportunity to file a revised poll expenses was provided to him.
Mr Chavan had also challenged that he had incurred an expenditure of Rs 6.85 lakh in the 2009 Assembly elections, leaving him with a margin of Rs 3.14 lakh to incur further expenditure up to the ceiling limit of Rs 10 lakh.
The EC had argued that Mr Chavan didn’t disclose the expenditure incurred on some advertisements released in October 2009 regarding a meeting that was to be held between members of the UPA.
However, Mr Chavan had argued that he did not know who had issued the advertisements.
The high court, in its 101-page verdict, said “except the bald allegation” made by the poll panel, no evidence was brought on record to prove that the expenditure was actually incurred by Mr Chavan. The court also observed that even if the “insignificant amount” of Rs 16,924 incurred on the advertisement was added to the MP’s election expenditure, it did not reach the ceiling limit.
The Congress leader had won the 2009 Assembly election from Bhokar in Maharashtra’s Nanded Lok Sabha constituency. He won the recent Lok Sabha polls also from Nanded.