SC seeks EC's response on Koda's plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today sought the Election Commission’s response on former Jharkhand chief minister and MP Madhu Koda’s plea challenging the panel’s move to disqualify him for alleged discrepancies in the 2009 poll expenditure accounts submitted by him. A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and SS Nijjar while issuing the notice to the Election Commission asked counsel Meenakshi Arora to file her response within 4 weeks. [caption id=“attachment_304304” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Agencies”]  [/caption] Koda had moved the apex court after the Delhi High Court on 30 September 2011, dismissed his appeal challenging the EC’s proceedings against him. Koda, in his petition, challenged the EC’s notice of 7 October 2010 and 26 January 2011, threatening him with disqualification for allegedly not filing detailed accounts about his poll expenses during the 2009 elections. Koda, who has been in jail since his arrest in November 2009 on graft charges, had said through his counsel Himanshu Shekhar that the Commission has issued notice to him on the basis of IT returns filed by him in 2009 and sought quashing of the notice. According to the petition, Koda was elected as independent MP from West Singhbum Constituency in 2009 and in October 2010, he Election Commission had issued notice to him asking him as to why he should not be disqualified on the ground that he had shown the election expenses far less than the actual amount of nearly Rs 10 crore allegedly spent by him. The high court had, earlier, while dealing with Koda’s petition and similar plea of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan ruled that “the (Election) Commission can go into the truthfulness or untruthfulness of the accounts filed by the elected candidates.” The court further said, “It should be clear that there is a check with regard to the conduct of the contesting candidates as well as the elected candidates”. PTI