EC disqualifies Narottam Mishra: Madhya Pradesh minister moves court seeking stay on order

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra on Tuesday filed a petition in the high court seeking a stay on and quashing of the recent Election Commission (EC) order that disqualified him for three years. Mishra was disqualified by the EC on 23 June for filing wrong accounts of election expenditure in the 2008 Assembly polls. [caption id=“attachment_3742741” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Narottam Mishra. News18[/caption] The water resources, legislative affairs and public relations minister filed a writ petition before the Gwalior bench of the high court seeking relief against the order. In a related development, his political rival Rajendra Bharti filed a caveat in the Gwalior bench seeking that he should be heard along with Mishra when the latter’s writ petition comes up for hearing. Mishra has filed the writ petition seeking stay on and quashing of the EC order that disqualified him from contesting elections for three years from that date, the minister’s counsel, former MP additional advocate general MPS Raghuvanshi, told PTI. “I filed a caveat to ensure that I am informed and heard along with Mishra and he is not given an ex-parte relief,” Bharti said. Mishra’s election from the Datia assembly seat also stands void after the Election Commission order. Mishra had earlier told reporters that according to legal experts his disqualification order was “infructuous”. To press his point, he had contended that EC delivered its judgement based on the case relating to his win in 2008 MP Assembly polls from Datia seat. “After that I have won the people’s mandate in 2013 MP Assembly polls,” he had argued. The EC’s action came against the MP minister in response to a complaint filed by Congress leader Bharti, who lost the 2008 MP Assembly polls from Datia constituency to Mishra, a close aide of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Bharti had filed complaint with EC under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 on 4 April, 2009. Thereafter, the EC had served notice to Mishra on 15 January, 2013, Bharti said. Mishra had moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court against the EC notice but had failed to get any relief.