Hands tied, EC may not act against Virbhadra, wife

The Election Commission (EC) may not be able to take action against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his member of Parliament (MP) wife Pratibha Singh for providing any wrong information while filing nomination papers, as claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Updated on: Jan 3, 2014, 24:00:20 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The Election Commission (EC) may not be able to take action against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and his member of Parliament (MP) wife Pratibha Singh for providing any wrong information while filing nomination papers, as claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Anurag Thakur, BJP MP from Hamirpur and son of former Himachal CM Prem Kumar Dhumal, had filed a complaint with the commission, accusing Virbhadra and Pratibha of concealing information about their cash assets in the nomination papers filed to contest polls. The couple had, however, denied the allegation and the Congress has also backed them.

Sources in the EC say it would be difficult for the commission to probe the allegations as its powers to probe allegations of concealing facts while filing nomination papers has been curtailed by the court.
"We have asked the government to provide clarity in the Representation of People's Act on powers of the Election Commission to disqualify a candidate for providing wrong information to the commission," a senior EC officer said.

The commission wanted that it should have the power to disqualify a candidate for giving false information in the affidavit on assets and criminal record filed with the nomination papers. Thakur had accused Virbhadra of not providing information, with his nomination papers, on seeking loan from a private company that had a contract to set up a hydroelectric power plant in Himachal.

The EC has also sought the power to disqualify a candidate providing false information in the mandatory election expenditure report to be filed with the commission. As of now, the commission can disqualify a candidate only if he or she fails to file the expenditure report within a stipulated timeframe.

The commission has received a complaint against Pratibha of spending more than Rs 40 lakh during the Lok Sabha polls from Mandi constituency, which she won. The EC had found that the expenditure report submitted by her was at variance with the report of the expenditure observer appointed by the commission.

The EC, despite having two varying reports, has not been able to issue an explanatory notice to Pratibha, as it found that it does not have powers to question an elected representative on perceived wrong information. "The issue, as per the verdict of courts, can be settled only in a court of law in the form of an election petition," an official said.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan had questioned the EC's power to question an elected representative on the expenditure report. The EC had initiated hearing against Chavan on allegations of paid news.

In the Supreme Court, the law ministry backed Chavan's contention, saying that the EC could disqualify a candidate only if they fail to file an expenditure report. "Giving power to the EC (to disqualify for false information) will disturb the level playing field," the law ministry had said in its affidavit to the apex court.

As the union government is not willing to give this power to the EC, the latter will not be able to initiate any inquiry against Virbhadra and his wife.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Home/Cities/Chandigarh News/Hands Tied, EC May Not Act Against Virbhadra, Wife